TRACKING>>The Minister of Interior, Lt Col Abdulrahman Dambazau (rtd), said yesterday, that contrary to speculations that the federal government was constructing more prison facilities, it is reducing the number, by replacing most of the over a century old facilities, with modern day buildings that meet the required global standard.
The minister, who gave the explanation on the occasion of the commissioning of new projects and operational vehicles at the Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS) headquarters in Abuja said, most of the existing prisons in the country were over 100 years old and need to be replaced.
He said, ‘We are building prisons but we are not increasing the number of prisons. Most of our prisons are more that a century old. What we are doing is to build new ones that meet the required global standard for rehabilitation.”
He said as it stands now, “government has decided to shift focus from crimes to persons involved in criminal acts and their prospects as well as putting their environment into consideration; social and economic. This is because we are not seeking vengeance for the fact that the offender is human and can change.”
Dambazau, however, disclosed that the celebrated achievements were efforts geared towards reforming the prisons and thus, reducing, overcrowding, rehabilitating and fostering positive treatment of inmates as contained in a memo on assumption of office.
Meanwhile, the chairman, House Committee on Interior, Hon Jagaba Adams Jagaba, revealed that Prisons Reform Bill seeking to address NPS as Nigeria Correctional Service is at the verge of being assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari, who has agreed to delete two controversial paragraphs from the bill.
