Lagos To Continue Its Assistance To The Prisons Service- SSG
The Secretary to the Lagos State Government, Mr Tunji Bello over the weekend expressed the readiness of the State Government to continue to assist the State Command of the Nigerian Prisons Service with equipment and facilities to ensure that the prisons remain safe at all times.
The SSG who spoke at his Alausa Office while receiving the State Controller of Prisons, Mr Tunde Ladipo and top officials of the Prisons service, while responding to a request for assistance on provision of body scanners and installation of Close circuit Television to monitor inmates, said he would channel the request to the State Security Trust Fund and Security Council.
While responding to an observation that many people are now being remanded in prison custody for civil offences like street trading, Tunji Bello said the state is already embracing non- custodial punishment of offenders and would also liaise with the State Attorney General on the issue.
The SSG also called for a revisit of the option of relocating the prison yards across the nation to more spacious locations as one of the means of accommodating more inmates adding that prisons in the state which include Maximum, Minimum and Ikoyi prisons are overpopulated.
He said there was a time during the administration of former governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, that Lagos State Government wanted to build massive prison yards in Epe and provide adequate facilities for members of staff in order to reduce the problems of overpopulation in the Prisons, but the proposal was rejected by the Federal Government.
In his words: “The prisons in Lagos are over populated one way or the other. In fact, Ikoyi Prison has always been having persistent problem on sanitation and this has remained unresolved. The prisons capacities have been exceeded and their facilities are over stretched. Transporting the inmates to court remains a serious burden to the staff as well”.
Speaking earlier, the State Controller of Prisons, Mr Tunde Ladipo had commended the Government of Mr Akinwunmi Ambode for its constant assistance to the Prison Service despite the fact that it is a federal agency.
He also sought the assistance of the State Government in providing security equipment like body scanners at the Prisons and the installation of close circuit cameras and watch towers to monitor the inmates.
He pleaded with the State Government to consider non-custodial sentences for people who run foul of the State Environmental Sanitation laws because many offenders convicted cannot pay the optional fine.
