Prisons boss says N20bn not enough to feed 72,000 inmates

The Comptroller-General of Prisons (NPS), Jafaru Ahmed, on Monday said that inmates’ feeding budget of N19.8 billion proposed in the 2017 budget would not be enough to cover the cost of food for prisoners in the country.

He also disclosed that the NPS currently owes food contractors more than N5.9 billion for supplies made to feed the 72,000 inmates across the country.

He stated this when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Interior to defend the service’s 2017 budget.

Noting that personnel were overstretched, Ahmed said the service is planning to recruit additional 6,545 warders to help beef up security and provide services around 241 prison facilities.

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The committee, which was chaired by Adams Jagaba, was also told that the new wardens would shore-up the personnel vote of the NPS by another N6 billion.

The NPS’ total budget proposal for 2017 which is put at N72.3 billion is broken into N14.9 billion for capital projects; N19 billion for overhead expenditure; and N37.5billion for personnel cost.

However, Ahmed told the Reps committee that an outstanding balance of N10.8billion had yet to be released to the service for its 2016 capital vote, adding that out of the nearly 320 operational vehicles that the service required for urgent services, only 117 were purchased in 2016.

He said, “Kuje Prisons has only two operational vehicles. This is a big facility and we can imagine the number of inmates there. So, clearly we have to buy more vehicles this year.”

 

 

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