Haliru Nababa, Controller General Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), has disclosed that over 5,000 of the current total of over 80,000 inmates in the country are on death row mostly by hanging.
This was disclosed on Tuesday in Abuja at the launch of the ‘Court Administration and Management and Case Management and The Reforming Pre-Trial Detention in Nigeria Phase II Projects’ organised by the Public and Private Development Center (PPDC) and United State Government.
The Controller General represented by Assistant Controller General (ACG), Custody of the NCoS, Gimba Manu Dumbulwa, noted that they have waited for decades without their sentences being carried out due to the non-signing of their death warrants by state governors and other authorities.
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He stated: “As of today, we have about 80, 20 inmates. 50,000 are awaiting trial while about 5,000 are for death sentences. We are happy because you are discussing congestion. We see about 20 inmates being hosted in a room instead of 5. Access to justice is still a problem. We are happy because you people are here to reduce congestion.
“We are happy with PPDC because they will be providing legal support to 1,700 detainees per year. If this can be done, which I know it will be done, our correctional centres that are highly congested will now be freed.”
“Somebody who is sentenced to death by hanging, some have stayed for 10 years, 15 years and even 20 years in custody while their death sentence has not been signed by the governors,” he said.
According to him, out of 51,076 of the awaiting trial inmates, 49,843 are males while the remaining 1,233 are females.
