THE federal government says it has reviewed the feeding allowance of all the inmates serving their respective terms in the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) across the country by 50 per cent
This newspaper reports that the review came on the heels of a recent viral video which showed that inmates complained of poor feeding in one of the correctional centres in Calabar, Cross River State.
The Spokesman of the NCoS, Umar Abubakar, disclosed this at the Customs’ headquarters in Abuja on Thursday during a joint press briefing of all security agencies.
The briefing, organised by the Strategic Communications Interagency Policy Committee (SCIPC) of the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), had representatives of Army, Navy, others in attendance.
According to Abubakar, the increment was the first part of the review to cushion the hike in the price of food in the country.
He said, “The viral video is not a representation of Nigeria Correctional Service, nor is it a mandate of the service on reformation and rehabilitation of inmates.
“Let me make this known here that since the inception of the change in name, a significant progress has been made in reforming those who are in our custodies.
“Four days ago, I granted an interview where we gave details on the alleged video. The NCoS has actually ordered for detailed investigation on the said video, which is going viral, and on the outcome of the investigation, I may not be able to speak much on that.
“And on the issue of cost of food, the federal government has actually reviewed the feeding allowance of inmates in our custody by 50 percent. And this is just the first phase of the review,” he said.
The spokesman said the NCoS had provided an enabling environment for inmates in order to achieve its mandate of reformation and rehabilitation.
He said, “Let me say here that currently, in an effort to ensure that we have what I refer to as public safety through our reformatory activities, we have over 1,000 of our inmates who are actually going through their various degree programmes, 282 doing their diploma and master’s degree programmes, and six that are doing their PhD programme. Three of the PhD students are already writing their thesis.
“All this is geared towards our efforts to ensure that we change the psyche and behaviour of our inmates, and to help their re-entry back to the society.
“It is the care we give to these inmates in our custody that has actually provided a serene environment to help them learn skill acquisition across our custodial center, and to also pursue their educational programme.”