[dropcap color=”#dd3333″ font=”georgia”]T[/dropcap]he National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has inaugurated a special panel to investigate the alleged extra -judicial killing of persons at the Abakaliki prison on August 19, 2016.
The Executive Secretary of the commission, Prof. Ben Angwe, who inaugurated the committee in Abuja on Thursday advocated special funding for prisons across the country.
Angwe said that preliminary investigations by the commission revealed that a riot broke out in the prison which led to the killings.
He said that the cause of the riot would not be far-fetched from the deplorable state of the prisons, adding that the commission was concerned about how overstretched the prison facilities were.
He said it was necessary for magistrates to visit these prisons from time-to-time to see the facilities there as this could guide them in sentencing people to jail.
“Some of the inmates have been in prison for over five years, awaiting trial and have not been taken to court yet in one of the prisons a pregnant woman who was nursing was in prison for stealing cocoyam worth N400.
“She was granted bail, but needed two sureties who are grade level 16 officers in the civil service, where will a woman who steals that amount of cocoyam know a grade level 16 civil servant?’’
He also said that during the recent prison audit carried out by the commission, it was discovered that 1,800 inmates sentenced to death were yet to know their fate.
He said this was because the state governors had not yet decided when it would be carried out and this was creating a lot of tension in the prison.
The Comptroller-General of Prisons, Mr Ahmed Ja’afaru, told newsmen that if the prison authority had not acted promptly on the day of the riot, it would have been more catastrophic.
“Prisoners attempted to resist searching and as a result, attempted to break and scale the wall and that day if we did not do what we did, over 922 inmates would have gone.
“They already broke down the inner gate, broke their cells and dug holes on the parameter fence and some were attempting to scale the wall, but were stopped and about 10 inmates were injured while six died,’’ he said.
He said that contrary to public belief, the prisoners were not killed by trigger happy wardens.
He added that the investigation of the commission being an independent one would throw more light on what transpired on August 19, 2016 in addition to the investigation conducted by the prison authorities.
He said that the prison authority was working hard to address the issue of staff welfare, particularly in relation to the stagnation of officers, barracks accommodation and educational opportunity for staff.
Ja’far said it was expected that the new measures being put in place would motivate the staff for efficient performance.
The prisons boss said that some of the attempted jailbreaks or escapes were as a result of the poor prison structures, some of them are over 100 years old.
He, however, said that the issue would be addressed in the 2017 and 2019 budgets.
He added that measures were in place to address the issue of inadequate staff as not to over labour the staff.
He said that 23 staff found wanting in their duties had been dismissed, while 11 were placed on suspension, adding that this had made a lot of staff more efficient.
The panel which has Mr Tony Ojukwu as its Chairman is to ascertain the number of persons that were killed or injured during the incident and the immediate and remote causes.
It is to also establish the nature of human rights violations that occurred during the incident and the persons responsible for the violations.
The panel would also inquire into the situation of women with children in the prison.
