Poor feeding, food racketeering killing inmates dying in prisons, panel reveals

Several inmates are said to be dying in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) due to poor feeding and high levels of food racketeering in the detection facilities.

Secretary of the Independent Investigative Independent Investigative Panel on the Alleged Corruption, Abuse of Power, Torture, Cruel, Inhumane and Degrading Treatment of Inmates Against the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Dr. Uju Agomoh, said prisoners were starving because “in all of the facilities we went to during our inspection visit as a panel, during the last week of February (2024), there was none we saw food up to the approved weekly standards by the agency. So, the stock they are supposed to have for at least seven days, as is the practice, is not being implemented.

“This is about being open to knowing where the problem is because many inmates are dying because of lack of food. I have been going to correctional centres for more than 30 years, but I have never seen what we see these days. There have always been problems, but it has never been the way it is now.”

The secretary explained that the panel aimed to improve efficiency in the NCoS, adding that transparency was critical to the work at hand.

Pointing out that it is dangerous to starve inmates because ginger can lead to aggression, Agomoh said in all the facilities that the panel visited, it gathered that those supplying food to the custodial facilities were officers-in-charge who maximised profit to the detriment of a functional system.

“First, the quantity that is provided is small, second this drive of profit-making worsens the process. The officers in charge are one of the checks and balances for the (food), contractors,” she noted.

Further, she said the panel “will need a response from the Nigerian Correctional Service in respect of Section 14 Subsection 4 of the NCoS Act.”

Earlier, a representative of the Acting Controller-General of the Service, Ibrahim Idris, from the Legal Department, explained that there was a committee known as the Prison Ration Committee that had the oversight of going around to verify exact measurements and what the inmates were to eat accordingly.

Speaking on the farm centres being operated by the NCoS, member of the panel, Dr Ikechukwu Ezeugo, popularly known as Consultant Iyke, observed that “out of the over 12 farm centres, only a few are functional, and that even the food being produced by inmates in these centres are not used to feed the inmates, but rather the food is being sold to the food contractors who (do) the resale or resupply same to the farm centres and other custodial centres.”