•Security dogs earn higher budget, get N800 per diem

•50,401 awaiting trial, 3,271 on death row nationwide

Gross underfunding of custodial centres and perennial dehumanisation of persons reached a new height with daily cost of feeding each inmate now N750. The Guardian findings confirmed that even security dogs in custody of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) are better fed than humans.

While a dog is fed with N800 worth of meals per day, each inmate is subjected to N750 food every day – to explain why the food is abysmally poor. As at November 2023, records show that there were 80,804 inmates across all the custodial centres in Nigeria, but with the gradual release of inmates, whose fines were recently offset by the Federal Government in partnership with the private sector, the number has decreased.

Meanwhile the NCoS has used N60.6 million to feed 80,804 inmates daily, amounting to N22.12 billion yearly. In contrast, there are 900 dogs being kept by the service. The 900 dogs take N720,000 worth of food daily, amounting to N262.8 million yearly.

This shows that the dogs are better fed by 6.6 per cent, yet there is no evidence that any of those dogs attempting to fend off the terrorists that invaded Kuje Correctional Centre, in Abuja last year or any of such facilities that have been attacked in the past.

According to information obtained by The Guardian, as at December 11, 2023, there are a total of 78,446 inmates across the 253 custodial centres in Nigeria. This means that the inmates are now fed with N58,834,500 daily.

Out of this number, 76,670 are males, while 176 are females. There are 50,401 awaiting trial inmates consisting of 49,195 males and 1,206 females.

On the death row, there are 3,271 inmates of which 3,207 are males and 64 females.

Of the 78,446 inmates, those already convicted are 22,183, meaning that 56,263 inmates are awaiting trial, representing 441 per cent of the prison population currently.

Although in reality, the inmates take food worth far less than the N750 allocated to them owing to official corruption, which manifests in the procurement processes and the alleged pilfering of procured goods by warders.

The Guardian investigation revealed that inmates buy foodstuffs for themselves through proxies (including friendly warders), get supplies from families or friends and cook their own foods in some of the Centres as prison foods are mostly unfit for consumption.

In addition, inmates buy their own drugs when they are sick for over-the-counter drugs that are always out of supply in Prison clinics and also pay to be conveyed to court on each adjourned date, without which, the suspect will remain incarcerated perpetually without trial.

The Controller General of the NCoS, Haliru Nababa had before Senator Adams Oshiomhole openly admitted that they have a budget of N800 per dog daily, while humans individually have meals worth N750 each day.

Reacting to the issues, the Public Relations Officer of the NCoS, Umar Abubakar, said the agency is grappling with paucity of funds and government neglect over the years.

On the issue of feeding inmates, he said the money was even less until they made a case to raise it to N1000, but couldn’t succeed. He blamed the differential between the feeding of dogs and humans on the Ninth Assembly.

“It was the wisdom of the Ninth Assembly to make such approval when the budget was presented to them. They also eventually penned the inmates daily feeding to N750 as against the N1000 earlier requested by the agency in its budget then.

“Recall that in the past, the money was even less, but we made a case that the current economic reality cannot actually agree with the amount used to feed inmates. So, we proposed N1, 000 for their feeding, but the immediate past National Assembly made it N750.

“But we have also now forwarded a proposal that the N750 is not realistic because every day, the prices of things are soaring and as such, there is a need to review upward the current amount that is used to feed inmates because it is not realistic,” he revealed.

According to Abubakar, other countries prioritise the welfare of the Correctional Service and that of the inmates. “If you check the correctional services of other countries, they give huge priority to corrections and I must say that the position the service found itself is as a result of long neglect by successive governments.

“The Nigerian Correctional service got it right with the passage and signing of the NCoS bill into law and this changed the nomenclature of the Nigerian Prison Service to Nigerian Correctional Service. This brought about the issue of custodial and non-custodial sentencing to decongest our facilities because it is not all offences committed that one is supposed to be put to a jail,” he said.

Expressing views over the development, a professor of law and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Sam Erugo said even though the information is shocking, he is not surprised.

According to him, there are many dimensions to the revelations. These, he said, include the worsening government disregard of the worth of human life and living, the growing imbalance in the system, and endemic corruption.

“It is common knowledge that government policies hardly take into consideration the worth of citizens’ lives and, essentially, their standard of living.

“This fact is easily demonstrated by the minimum wage and the perennial or persistent labour disputes over living wage. The average Nigerian worker is not paid a living wage, and here we discover that the security dog has more value and should be better fed than the prisoner, who may be innocent but awaiting trial,” he lamented. He stated that the further implication is that the monthly cost of feeding a security dog closely approximates the national minimum wage.

“Again, it could simply reflect the imbalance in the system, that is, the failure in fair distribution or allocation of resources. In this case, unfortunately, as between security dogs and human beings, it tilted against the citizens.

“However, from a social justice perspective, the imbalance and obvious injustice in the system are also pervasive among the citizenry in a clear case of class society.

“For instance, the disparity in the official income of workers in different workplaces, sometimes even in the same workplace, could be alarming. Most remarkable is the discriminatory income between the citizens in public and civil service and those of the political office holders.

“Finally, the exposed development could be a pointer to corrupt practices. Generally, and essentially, the news is disheartening, particularly when you appreciate the fact that the average Nigerian law-abiding citizen has no access daily to such funds supposedly expended daily on security dogs and prisoners,” he emphasised.

Human rights activist and lawyer, Bankole Kayode lamented that the feeding money is grossly inadequate, wondering if the inmates are actually fed with the little amount allocated to them in the real sense of it. He argued that the money allocated to feed the dogs may be justified considering that those dogs are special breeds that need to be well-fed to be fit for training, but lamented that humans could be so poorly treated.

His words: “Generally, I feel that N750 per day as a feeding bill for anyone in Nigeria of today is grossly inadequate. The question that comes to mind is whether the inmates are fed three times daily and for what amount per meal?

“I don’t mind the amount spent on feeding those dogs because those types of dogs are not of the common species. They require special training and feeding for them to perform their assignments adequately, but I shudder to hear that such a poor allocation of funds is dedicated to the feeding of the inmates at our Correctional Centres.”

Interestingly, Dr Olukayode Ajulo (SAN) thinks differently over the issue. For him, Correctional Centres in prime areas should be closed down entirely and their properties sold off to raise revenue to fund education.

Asked where the inmates would be taken to when the facilities are sold, he argued that a new, cheaper and befitting structure could be built for them in not too expensive locations.

His words: “To address this funding gap, I propose considering the sale of underutilised assets, particularly the Correctional Centres located in prime areas like the Ikoyi Prison and others in high value locations in Nigeria.

“The market value of the Ikoyi Prison alone is estimated to be around N50 billion and about half a trillion Naira could be realised from the sale of such Centres that dotted the high premium areas in Nigeria.

“I understand that the decision to sell Correctional Centres requires careful consideration, taking into account legal implications, security concerns, and the need to maintain a balanced criminal justice system, however, I believe that with proper evaluation and planning, we can strike a balance between addressing the funding needs of education and ensuring a well-functioning correctional system.” (The Guardian)

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