NO fewer than 3,167 inmates across the custodial centres in Nigeria are on death row, the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) has revealed.
Spokesperson of NCoS, Mr Abubakar Umar who made this known at media parley on Thursday in Abuja, disclosed that the number is out of the total of 74,824 inmates who are behind bars in the Nigerian prisons across the country as of December 12, 2022.
He also disclosed that a total of 52,178 inmates are awaiting trial out of which 50,955 males while awaiting trial females are 1223.
On a number of convicts, Umar disclosed that only 19,479 inmates in custody were convicted, noting that out of this figure, 19,140 are males while the remaining 339 are females.
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He noted that the current administration of the Controller-General of Corrections, Haliru Nababa has taken bold steps to reposition the Correction Service to be a place of reformation and not punitive as the public are made to believe of the Prisons Service.
He commended the media for supporting the Service in the efforts to actualise its core mandate, saying commendable progress has been made in various areas through the active support of the media.
He said: “It is heart-warming to inform you that current statistics of inmates undergoing various degree programmes in our facilities as at November 2022 is 1,282. Out of this number, 1,215 are undergraduate students, 62 are postgraduate diploma and Masters students 5 inmates are doctorate degree candidates.
“Also, a total number of 74 inmates have graduated from various undergraduate and postgraduate programmes,” he said.
Umar further noted that significant progress has been made in the area of inmates vocational training as they are equipped with skills to lead responsible life after incarceration.
According to him, the CG in the last one year has given over 100 inmates starter packs to enable them to reintegrate properly back into the society.
