By Kamil Opeyemi
The Minister of Interior, Mister Rauf Aregbesola on Thursday said henceforth, state governments are to provide feeding and accommodation to inmates in their states.
Speaking at a 2-day High-Level Conference on Decongestion and Corrections Management held in Abuja, he said the Federal Government would no longer bear such burdens.
According to him, with the amendment of the 1999 constitution which has now placed the issue of correctional services on the concurrent list, states are empowered to establish their own Correctional Services and facilities.
“This simply means that states are now empowered to establish their own Correctional Services and facilities.
“States which do not have correctional facilities would have to pay the Federal Government for the feeding and accommodation of their inmates,” the minister said.
“These facilities are being run by the Federal Government. It should be noted that the criminal justice system of Nigeria makes provision for state and federal offences.
“However, until the amendment of the Constitution, only the Federal Government was in charge of custodial centres.
“With the amendment of the Constitution, states are now empowered to build correctional centres and facilities to house offenders who are convicted and sentenced for committing state offences.
“Where states are unable to build custodial centres, it is believed that they can suggest ways to collaborate with the Federal Government in feeding and housing these state offenders,” he added.
Currently, the Federal Government spends over N22 billion to feed inmates across 244 correctional facilities in the country.
The minister said this is draining the Federal Government’s revenue.
He also revealed that 4,067 inmates are in custody for being unable to pay fines of N1 million and below.