The Niger State Police Command along with other security agencies, have begun searching for the 109 fleeing inmates from the Medium Security Correctional Centre in the Suleja area of the state.
The spokesperson of the command, Abiodun Wasiu revealed the development to NewsNGR on Thursday following the rainstorm that forced the inmates to flee the facility.
“In view of the inmates’ escape from the Suleja correctional centre, the police and other security agencies have commenced efforts and mobilised to re-arrest the escaped inmates,” he said.
The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) confirmed that a total of 119 inmates had fled the dilapidated facility, sandwiched by residential buildings.
The rainstorm, according to the NCoS destroyed the perimeter fence of the facility established since the amalgamation of the country in 1914.
Reacting to the incident, the Spokesperson of the NCoS, Federal Capital Territory Command, Adamu Duza said the command was collaborating with other security agencies to recapture the remaining fleeing inmates.
Duza said, “Our intelligence officers, armed squadron officers, in collaboration with the Nigeria police force, DSS, and other security agencies are combing neighbouring communities to find the fleeing inmates.
“Very soon, we shall publish the names and pictures of the fleeing inmates.”
Recall that over 800 inmates were freed after suspected terrorists invaded the Kuje Medium Security Correctional Facility in Abuja, on July 5, 2022. To date, there has been no authoritative data on recaptured inmates and those at large.
The recent situation further heightens existing concerns on the capacity of the nation’s correctional facilities to appropriately safeguard its centres against all forms of impediments, and the society from interfacing with inmates (convicted and awaiting trial) in the event of a jailbreak or other related situations.
Another major concern is the congestion issue in the nation’s correctional facilities.
A 2012 prison audit report by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) revealed that in all the 173 prisons audited across the country, the lockup was 50,645 compared to a capacity of 46,024.
“Across the prisons, the number of awaiting trial inmates was far above that of convicts. In the 173 prisons audited, out of 50,645 lockups, the number of convicts was 13,901 compared to awaiting trial inmates of 35,889,” the report said.
By 2018, an updated report by the NHRC, also showed the result of 36 audited prisons noting that of the total capacity of the total capacity of 17,191, there was a total lockup of 34581.
“This shows that almost all the prisons were congested,” the report said.
The report added, “In all the prisons audited, the number of awaiting trial inmates was far more than the convicts. From the Thirty-Six (36) prisons visited, there was a total of 25,232 people awaiting trial against 5,340 convicts.
“What this shows is that Criminal Justice delivery is a major problem in the country.”
Checks by NewsNGR showed that, out of a total of 80,124 inmates’ population in Nigeria, a total of 24,688 have been convicted while 55,436 are awaiting trial, an updated data (as of April 22) on the NCoS website read as of press time.