FG spends N200 on prisoner daily 'Controller Genera

lIt costs the FederalGovernment N200 tofeed a prisoner in Nigeria per day, the Controller General of Prisons, Mr Biodun Odundipe, has said.He added that prisoners were fed three times a day and that it cost about N4 million to feed about 900 inmates at the Maximum Prisons, Kirikiri, Lagos and about N15 million to feed about 2,300 inmates at the Medium Prisons, also at Kirkiri in Lagos.Mr Odundipe, who appeared on Monday, before the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, revealed that there were 49,000 inmates in Nigerian prisons nationwide, but that 38,000 out of this figure were awaiting trials, saying that it was the figure of the awaiting trials that gave the impression of congestion in the prisons.He said the congestions were experienced in Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Kano prisons, adding that where a prison's capacity was 800, one would find it accommodating over 3,000 inmates, whereas in Ogoja prisons with capacity for 400 inmates, only 100 inmates were there and in Ikot Ekpene with capacity for 300 inmates, but harboured just 120 inmates.Ogundipe, who was contributing to the Senate Public Hearing on a bill for an Act to transfer convicted offenders, said Nigerian prisons had the capacity to admit prisoners who might be transferred from Britain and other countries.
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