'Each Nigerian prisoner feeds on N3.50k daily' - Advocacy group

dimeji akinloye

June 25, 2015 6:15 PM

Obiagwu said the previous amount used in feeding one inmate daily was N2.10k, noting that the new Comptroller-General of Prisons increased it to the current N3.50.

Nigerian prisoners

The National Coordinator of the Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP), Chino Obiagwu, has revealed that Nigeria spends N3.50k daily to feed a prisoner.

He made this known on Thursday, June 25 at a meeting with media and civil society organizations in Lagos.

Speaking further at the round table gathering which was themed ‘Moving Nigeria Towards the Abolition of the Death Penalty,’ Obiagwu said the previous amount used in feeding one inmate daily was N2.10k, noting that the new Comptroller-General of Prisons increased it to the current N3.50.

“The truth is that many prisoners supplement their meals because all kinds of businesses and activities go on inside the prisons.

“If you allow Nigerian prisoners to survive on their ration, they will all die,” he said.

LEDAP, led by Obiagwu champions the rights of Nigerian prisoners.

According to him, about 56,000 inmates are scattered across Nigerian prisons. He said but for the philanthropy gestures from churches like the Catholic and The Redeemed Christian Church of God and other bodies who regularly visit the prisons to improve the welfare of inmates, many of them would die of starvation.

dimeji akinloye