Rights activist and Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial district, Shehu Sani, on Thursday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency on the nation’s prisons’ service as part of the war against corruption.
According to the senator, if the war against corruption must work, then the prison system must also be functional to accommodate convicts.
“Where do you take those (corrupt persons) to be convicted to and where do you take those arrested to.
It is the prisons”, he pointed out.
He made the remarks shortly after delivering a lecture at the Prisons Staff College, Kaduna.
Sani lamented the sorry state of the nation’s prisons, saying that there is the need for urgent intervention from the Federal Government to make the anti-corruption war meaningful.
Towards this end, he promised to present a bill at the National Assembly for the reformation of the Nigerian Prisons Service system and announced a scholarship scheme for students of staff of Nigerian Prison Service.
“The Nigerian Prisons Service needs an emergency intervention. I assure you that I will present your issue on the floor of the senate”, he said.
Sani insisted that the anti-corruption war of the President Buhari administration can only succeed with functional prisons of the 21st century.
“I believe that if the anti-corruption is going to make any meaning, we need to put these prisons in order.
If we don’t do that, it means we are simply wasting our time”, the activist-turned politician said.
