202 Boko Haram members are in prison nation wide

The Nigeria Prison Service has said that no
fewer than 202 suspected members of the
proscribed Boko Haram sect are being held
in prison formations across the country,
out of the 36,874 inmates awaiting trial.

The NPS Comptroller-General, Mr. Zakari
Ibrahim, said this when the Senate
Committee on Interior, led by Senator
Baguda Abubakar, visited the service's
national headquarters in Abuja as part of
the committee's oversight functions.

The CG explained that 1,113 persons were
already condemned to death and awaiting
execution or commutation to life
imprisonment but the service was under
pressure from the European Union, human
rights groups and Western countries not to
do so.

"The situation is more worrisome as
relevant authorities who have the
constitutional powers to either authorise
execution or commutation to life
imprisonment are reluctant to exercise
such powers. The implication is that prison
security is mostly threatened," Ibrahim
said.

The prison boss also told the senators that
about 11 prisons have been so far
attacked by persons suspected to be Boko
Haram members since the insurgency in
the country started, with 1,637 inmates set
free, adding that most of the inmates had
been recaptured.

Responding, Abubakar urged the prison
authorities to always voice their
challenges, giving the assurance that the
Senate was always willing to assist if their
problems were known.
Meanwhile, the Federal Fire Service has
described the reorganisation of the service
done in 2007 by the administration of
President Olusegun Obasanjo as 'a
mistake.'

The service declared that if the country
was serious about fire disasters and
prevention, adequate attention would have
been given to the organisation.

FFS Controller-General, Olusegun Okebiorun,
said this in Abuja on Wednesday when he
received the Senate Committee on Interior
in his office.

Okebiorun condemned the 2007
restructuring policy, which approved that
FFS should become a regulator of the fire
service in the country without functioning
fire stations, adding that the organisation
"required improved attention to be able to
deliver requisite service to the nation at
optimal level."

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