By Edwin Philip.
The Independent Investigative Panel on Alleged Corruption, Abuse of Power, Torture, Cruel, Inhumane, and Degrading Treatment Against, the Nigerian Correctional Service, holding at Aso hall of Abuja Continental Hotel, have observed that food is directly connected to issues about health of the inmates, mortality rate. and the issues regarding the numbers of persons in custody.
They made their findings known on the day 7 of the second edition of the sitting, where the issues of feeding of inmates and the Nigerian Correctional Service Agricultural Programmes/Correctional Farm Centres was extensively looked into with major stakeholders.
Relying on section 14 of the Correctional Service Act of 2019, which spelt out how, when , where and what the inmates at the custodial centres are to be fed, noting that it is high time the State that has the highest numbers of persons who are in custody, should be able to replicate what is in the concurrent list of the Correctional Service, at least at the very minimum start with the feeding of the people they put in custody, as statistics showed that over 80 percent of people in custody are from those States.
The panel noted that from their on the spot assessment in the Correctional centres they visited, the service act of 2019 was grossly abused, where instead of procuring food from the producers,there was excessive use of middle men and women, and those supplying food where officers in charge.
“In all of the places we went to, facts gathered was that those supplying the food are officers in charge, and many of them because of the lack of payment have gone to borrow, because you know when an inmates are not given food what will happen, the officers used to be the ones that will do the check and balances on the contractors about the daily supply of the food, many inmates are dying because of lack of food, the are high level of commercialisation at the centres”. the panel secretary said.
The panel however sought to know the status of the approval made by the President to increased the feeding of the inmates per day to one thousand two hundred and twenty five naira, with effect from August 2024, from the four hundred and fifty naira, which has not been implemented six months after, making it difficult for contractors to get funds to provide food for inmates which has led to untold hardship for the inmates resulting in sickness and deaths.
Giving his account at the sitting, the Correctional officer in charge of procurement, explained to the penal the process of recruiting contractors to include open competitive bidding, which means that they have to advertise in two national dailies and the tenders yearly, placed on the Correctional Service website, to ensure massive competition and that at the end of it, the best contractor will be appointed, and the value for money is achieved.
He lamented that the money been allocated to feed an inmates are usually too small and not enough, saying that in 2021, the cost of feeding inmates was increased from 450 Naira to 750, in 2024, they had another approval when the cost of food stuffs surge and they could not meet up.
“We had a lot of challenges in the custodial centres, because the contractors were complaining, the controller then wrote to the president and the president graciously approved the cost of feeding inmates per day to one thousand two hundred and twenty five naira, with effect from August 2024” he said.
According to the procurement officer, they contractors have not been paid the new amount, suggesting that the delay in the release of the fund after the president’s approval was send to the to the ministry of finance to make provisions for the funds, which up till now no provision have been made six months after, attributing it to the large amount of money, as the problems could be how to source for it.
He added that at any given time, the stock of food at custodial centres, should be enough for 7 days, saying that it is difficult for this to be implemented across all the centres, he said this in response to penal who said there findings were that at various centres they visited had no stocks that could take the inmates up to seven days.
In their recommendations, the panel raised the need to have the profit coming out of correctional service farm centres and vocational workshops to be divided into three so that some portion of it can be given towards the rehabilitation of their welfare, another for the sustainability of that enterprise, the last directly for the federal government consolidated funds.
They resolved that something needs to be done urgently as regards feeding, as it is very necessary and that what was been done in the past has not yielded the needed positive results, they emphasized the importance of a clear process that ensure that steps are talking to minimize the cost of feeding.
They added that, the Zambian approach, that ensured that inmates in that country farm and grow what they eat and the Malawi’s system, where the protein content of the feeding of the inmates there are sourced from their rabbit farms, should be adopted, soliciting for creativity to ensure that both the quality, the quantity of food the inmates eat comes to the standard that is stipulated in the Nigerian Correctional act of 2019.
The need for partnerships was also raised , to include organizations like the ones that have presented their recommendations to the panel, robust oversights in the areas of contracting, quantity and quality of food that is supplied, the distribution of the food that is cooked, the cooking of the food that are provided, ensuring that the provision as such that meals for about seven days should actually be enforced.
Earlier in the day, the panel looked cases of officers and inmates welfare, raging from their corporative Society, what accrues to individual upon retirement and the need to factor in inflationary trends.