THE Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) has said there are 3,167 condemned inmates on death row in prisons across the country.
The number comprise 3,105 males and 62 females.
The spokesperson of the NCoS Umar Abubakar disclosed this in Abuja on Thursday, December 15.
Abubakar added that the correctional centres currently have 19,140 male and 339 female convicts.
“As of Monday, December 15, we have 74,824 inmates in the correctional centres. Also in the correctional centres are 50,955 male and 1,223 female awaiting-trial persons,” he said.
He added that the NCoS had changed its strategy from punitive to restorative and corrective approaches in the management of offenders.
The Principal Staff Officer at the Service, Mamman Salisu, also said NCoS personnel had been trained to confront external attacks.
Salisu said more weapons were acquired and personnel placed on red alert to avert further attacks on the custodial centres.
“Before now, our men were trained to prevent attacks from within, but they have now been trained to counter external attacks on our facilities.”
He said arms and ammunition had been procured, and there is a presidential directive that anyone who attacks the custodial centres should not leave to tell the story.
“Our men have been put on red alert to gun down anyone who intrudes on our custodial centres,” Salisu stressed.
There has been various attack on Nigerian prisons in recent years.
However, an attack on the Kuje Medium Facility of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) generated much condemnation.
In a statement concerning the attack, the NCoS said 879 inmates escaped from the Kuje Prison.
Abubakar said five persons, including an officer of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and four inmates, died during the attack.
The Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), a breakaway group of the Boko Haram terrorist group, claimed responsibility for the attack.
In a video released by the terrorist group, a large group of men with guns and ammunition chanting ‘Allahu Akba” and shooting sporadically into the air set cars ablaze during the attack.
According to a report, the terrorists delivered a 15-minute Quranic lecture to inmates before setting them free.
The Minister of Defence, Bashir Magashi, had told pressmen that the 64 Boko-Haram terrorists who are inmates of the Kuje Custodial Centre were at large.
The NCoS also released a complete list of the names and pictures of the escapees from the Kuje prison.
A reporter with the ICIR
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