Senate threatens to step down NCoS 2024 budget over insufficient information

The Senate on Thursday threatened to step down consideration on the 2024 budget of the Nigerian Correctional Services (NCoS) over insufficient information

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior, Adams Oshiomole, stated this when the NCoS Comptroller-General, Alhaji Haliru Nababa, and other officials appeared at the National Assembly for the agency’s 2024 budget defence in Abuja.

He decried the services rendered to inmates in the correctional facilities.

Oshiomhole said: “Your organisation has transformed from Nigeria Prison Service to Nigerian Correctional Service but you have yet to change in your attitudes toward inmates.

“It’s not just your fault because the government appropriates little money for you. It is either you don’t feed the inmates or you feed them only once and even at that, very miserable food.

“This is why they have completely emaciated and some can never live a decent life again even when they did not commit an offence.

“You all know the price of food items in the market, so how can you look us eye to eye and tell us that you feed a man in Nigeria with N750 a day? How much is a bottle of water?”

The former Edo State governor said the committee would not be in a hurry to approve any budget for the service until it received satisfactory answers.

He requested the breakdown of the number of inmates and security dogs at the correctional centers and how they were fed daily.

“I would like to see a breakdown of how you feed the inmates. If you say you feed inmates three times a day with N250 each.

“How many dogs do you have and how much does it cost to feed them daily,” the chairman added.

In his remark, the NCoS chief said the service had a total of 81,358 inmates nationwide with 53,362 awaiting trial.

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