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Tag: Prisons

  • 39 prison controllers graduate from academy

    A total of 39 Controllers of the Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) on Friday completed a six-week advance management training aimed at repositioning correctional services in the country.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 8th Advance Command Course for the Controllers of Prisons was held at the NPS Academy, Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State.

    Speaking at the passing out parade of the participants, Comptroller General of NPS, Ja’afaru Ahmed, said that the academy was a penal training institution and first of its kind in Africa.

    The NPS boss said that the training was aimed at equipping the controllers with prerequisite managerial and leadership skills for their next rank of Assistant Comptroller General of Prison (ACG).

    Represented by Kunle Babalola, an Assistant Comptroller General in charge of Lagos and Ogun States, Ahmed commended participants for their hard work and commitment during the course.

    Speaking on behalf of the participants, the overall best student of the course, Mr Tunde Ladipo, called on his colleagues to use the skills acquired at the academy to transform the prisons.

    Ladipo, who is Controller of Prisons in Lagos State, said that the prisons were correctional centres established to reposition and refine inmates.

    The ceremony was attended by the Ago-Iwoye monarch, Oba Abdulrasak Adenugba and the Chairman Ijebu-Igbo West Local Government, Mr Adegoke Adekanbi.

    The monarch congratulated the participants and commended the NPS for siting the prisons academy in the community.

  • 50 prison inmates to write 2018 UTME

    No fewer than 50 prison inmates will sit for the 2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), according to an official.

    The Principal, Ikoyi Prisons School, Mr Idris Ibikunle, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos.

    According to him, the school has prepared the inmates well for the examination as officials of the facility have stepped up efforts in ensuring an excellent performance.

    “Right now, we are preparing about 50 of the inmates for the next UTME and by what I see, they are very determined to excel.

    “We are yet to enroll them for the examination proper; we want to give a little more room for others interested so we can do the enrolment once.

    “I am optimistic that we will enroll more than 50 of the inmates for the examination,’’ Ibikunle told NAN.

    NAN recalls that earlier this year, 59 inmates were registered for the 2017 UTME out which 35 had their results released and are at various stages of admission placement to tertiary institutions.

    The principal also said 40 inmates were being prepared for the newly introduced 2018 January/February diet of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for private candidates.

    According to him, prisons officials were committed to ensuring that the inmates had nothing to lose, academically, despite their incarceration.

    NAN recalls that the principal had, at the maiden edition of the facility’s Education Award ceremony recently in Lagos, said 20 of the inmates were running various courses in different disciplines at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).

    He said they were posting impressive performances in their chosen fields, ranging from Criminology, Security and Peace Studies, Theology, Business Administration to Mass Communication

    He, however, highlighted some constraints facing the school in the prison facility.

    “We are in need of stationery as well as the establishment of a befitting Computer Based Test (CBT) centre for our external examinations.

    “We, therefore, call for support from well-meaning Nigerians and organisations to join hands with us in ensuring that the dreams of these persons are kept alive,’’ he said.

    NAN

  • Prisoners will participate, vote in 2019 election, says INEC

    Prisoners will participate, vote in 2019 election, says INEC

    The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC says it is making arrangements with the Nigeria Prisons Service to ensure that prisoners are allowed to vote in the 2019 general elections.

    The Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said this in Abuja on Tuesday at a dialogue session with the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room Dialogue – a coalition of over 70 civil society organisations in Nigeria.

    The development comes three years after a Federal High Court in Benin, Edo State, ruled that prisoners in Nigeria have the right to vote in all elections conducted in the country.

    The INEC boss said the commission was looking at the possibility of creating polling units in Nigerian prisons to allow some categories of inmates to vote.

    He, however, said certain categories of prisoners would not be allowed to vote depending on the nature of the crimes they committed.

    Yakubu said, “We have already engaged the Comptroller-General of Prisons and we have statistics on the number of prisoners nationwide and the number of inmates that are registered. We are looking at the possibility of creating polling units in the prisons and to enable some categories of prisoners to vote.

    “Ghana does it but there are some categories of prisoners who by the nature of crimes committed lose the right to vote. Whatever we can do to open up the process to ensure that as much as possible Nigerians are given the opportunity to vote, will be done.”

    Also speaking on the forthcoming Anambra governorship election, the INEC boss said the commission would do everything to ensure that the election is not inconclusive.

    Yakubu raised the alarm over the wrongful substitution of names of governorship candidates by two political parties ahead of the governorship election.

    He regretted that the high level of non-compliance to the Electoral Act by the political parties was threatening the electoral system.

    Although the INEC boss declined to name the parties involved in the wrongful substitution of candidates’ names, he warned that if the act was eventually challenged in court, the whole election could be voided on that account and the nation made to bear the financial brunt of conducting a fresh election.

    The Executive Director, Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, and Convener of Situation Room, Clement Nwankwo, said the event was organised to find out the commission’s preparations for the forthcoming Anambra State governorship poll as well as other elections update.

  • Release 180 Ebonyi indigenes incarcerated in Lagos prisons, Umahi begs Ambode

    Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi has called on the Lagos State Government to unconditionally release 180 Ebonyi indigenes, incarcerated in Lagos for engaging in hawking.

    Umahi made the call on Thursday in Abakaliki, when he received a delegation of Ebonyi indigenes residing in Onitsha, Anambra, who visited him over the plight of its indigenes in the town and across the country.

    Umahi represented by his Deputy, Dr Kelechi Igwe, noted that the government received with dismay, the gory ordeals of the victims as narrated by the Ebonyi Development Association in Lagos.

    “The 180 victims were accused of contravening a law of the Lagos Government on street trading, but the intriguing aspect is that they had been incarcerated before the law was enacted.

    “Most of them had spent over two years in incarceration before the law was enacted, but they were unfortunately charged under the same law.

    “I will immediately consult and interact with my Lagos counterpart to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of the victims,” he said.

    The governor remarked that the days of treating Ebonyi citizens as second-class citizens in the country were over, as the government would extend its empowerment schemes to its indigenes residing across the country.

    “The government would immediately procure over 130 tricycles to enable hawkers of Ebonyi origin in Onitsha and environs, quit the trade and be gainfully employed.

    “We would accommodate over 20 indigenes in Onisha in our empowerment scheme, which would offer them a grant of N250, 000 each, to quit street trading and be gainfully employed.

    “The beneficiaries would cut across the 13 local government areas of the state and would consist of 50 per cent male and 50 per cent females.

    “The empowerment scheme would be extended to over 300 indigenes in Anambra and would subsequently accommodate those in states such as Abia, Kano, Lagos, among others,” he said.

    Mr Mathew Njoku, leader of the delegation and the Governor’s Senior Technical Assistant, Onitsha Liaison Office, thanked the governor for the reception and pledged to contribute its quota in the state’s development.

    “We thank you for graciously including Ebonyi indigenes in Onitsha and across the country in your empowerment schemes because it would help eradicate the humiliating experiences they undergo while hawking and engaging in other menial jobs.

    “Ebonyi indigenes are ranked among the most successful exporters of goods in Onitsha, and are willing to transfer such business acumen to enhance the state’s economy,” he said.

    Njoku also pledged that the state’s indigenes in Onitsha would support the governor’s second term bid and also his future political ambition.

     

     

    NAN

  • ‘Many innocent Nigerian children languishing in Lagos, other state prisons — UNICEF

    The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)’s Child Justice Consultant, Dr Wilfred Mamah, on Thursday said that there were many Nigerian children currently languishing in different prisons across the country.

    Mamah disclosed this in Lagos at a one-day Sensitisation Meeting on Diversion Community Rehabilitation Programme with media practitioners.

    The UNICEF’ Consultant also announced the inauguration of a pilot Community Rehabilitation Programme for Children in Conflict with the Law and Children at High Risk of Offending, in Lagos State.

    Mamah said that the inauguration of the pilot programme was to reduce the number of Nigerian children in the various Prisons, adding that certain children could not commit offences.

    “We have been working with the Lagos State Government in the protection of the Rights of the Children.

    “There are currently many children languishing in many Lagos State Prisons, as well as in other Prisons across Nigeria.

    “We have, therefore, come up with a Community Rehabilitation Programme with Grace Springs Rehabilitation Home, to gainfully engage these children and ensure that other children are not sent to Prison unnecessarily,’’ he said.

    Mamah said that UNICEF, as a global children’s protection organisation, would continue to create a situation whereby children were showed a better way of becoming responsible in life.

    “We need to know that no child is born a failure or an offender, but should be corrected and shown love always. We are aware that a number of children are still in prison.

    “Were it not for the intervention of the Chief Judge of Lagos State, who recently released about 80 children from the Badagry Prisons, those children would still have been languishing in there,’’ he said.

    Mr Yakubu Jubril, a Chief Social Welfare Officer with the Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Social Development, said that many of the children in Lagos Prisons were being wrongly held.

    Jubril said that his Ministry had come to realise that some of the children in different Prisons across Lagos State were not supposed to be there.

    “We have realised that children who are not supposed to be in Prison are there today.

    “We have found out that some of these children did not actually commit the offences levelled against them. Some of them were unduly raided by the Task Force,’’ he noted.

    Around the world, children languish behind bars, sometimes for protracted periods. In many cases, they face brutal and inhumane conditions.

    The lack of record-keeping and a wide array of institutions means that the number of children held worldwide in such environments is not known. The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has estimated that more than 1 million children are behind bars around the world.

    Many are held in decrepit, abusive, and demeaning conditions, deprived of education, access to meaningful activities, and regular contact with the outside world.

    Many of these children¬ — and adults who were convicted of crimes committed when they were children — have received excessive or disproportionate sentences that violate international law, which requires that imprisonment of children be in “conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.”

    Others are held for acts that should not be crimes at all, such as skipping school, running away from home, having consensual sex, and seeking or having an abortion. Some have never been tried for their alleged crimes; others are tried as if they were adults and, when convicted, sent to serve time in adult prisons.

    Migrant children are also routinely held in immigration detention, contrary to international standards. Children with disabilities and others may be institutionalized in the guise of protection.

    A UN study expected to be finalised in 2017 promises to put international focus on the detention of children and hopefully result in more systematic monitoring of abusive practices, increased compliance with international standards, and a dramatic reduction in the number of children deprived of their liberty.

    But governments need not wait for this report; they can and should act now to establish genuine alternatives to detention and ensure that those children who must be detained are held in humane conditions and benefit from schooling, health services, recreational opportunities, and contact with the outside world.

     

     

    NAN

  • Reps sponsoring Bill to decongest prisons – Gbajabiamila

    Reps sponsoring Bill to decongest prisons – Gbajabiamila

    The leader of the House of Representatives, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila (Lagos-APC), on Wednesday, said a Bill proposing community service as alternative to prison term for miscellaneous offenders in the country was underway.

    Gbajabiamila told newsmen in Abuja that when presented and passed, the emerging law would check congestion prisons across the country.

    He expressed concern over the state of prisons in the country, saying that no fewer than 100 inmates, who currently slept in one prison cell, could breed more criminals in the society.

    According to him, a congested prison has attendant consequences apart from the epidemic that may ensue.

    “This is apart from the people who may be in there for a period of two months to six months because the alternative was to pay a fine of N20, 000 which they didn’t have.

    “They are not criminals but petty offenders involved in misdemeanours like wondering or trading illegally on the streets or hawking,’’ the lawmaker said.

    He said that the situation in the prisons had the potential of producing more criminals.

    According to him, by the time the inmates come out, they are hardened.

    “So, the issue is for us to come up with a bill for community services for people like that rather than making prison term an alternative. All over the world they don’t do that for such offences.

    “I am actually happy that the community service Bill is in the process and will be coming for a second reading very soon so that we can decongest our prisons,’’ Gbajabiamila said.

    He explained that the bill would seek the removal of prison issues from the jurisdiction of the Federal Government to the states for improved services.

    “The ultimate goal for me is for us to remove the issue of prison from the exclusive list and send it down to the states.

    “If each state has about three or five prisons we are talking about over 100 prisons across the country and that will help to reduce congestion.

    “It should be a state matter because these people are tried for state offences mostly,’’ Gbajabiamila said.

     

     

    NAN