Nigeria Prison Inmates’ Plight: Contractors to blame for substandard prison food -NCS

By: Goodluck E. Adubazi, Abuja.

The Nigerian Correctional Service has attributed the poor feeding of Prison Inmates to contractors.

According to the Correctional Service officer, Contractors are responsible for poor prison feeding; this revelation was made during the public hearing of the independent investigative panel on the alleged corruption, Abuse of power, Torture, and Cruel and Degrading Treatment Against the Nigerian Correctional Service held on Wednesday, 12th March 2025 in Abuja.

The Assistant Controller General – ACG Ahmed Adagiri said contractors are the major problem of the inmate’s poor feeding.

Standard-Times reports that the Nigerian Correctional Service procurement officer, ACG Ahmed Adagiri, revealed this to the independent investigative panel during the public hearing.

NCS procurement officer revealed that inmate feeding is contracted through competitive bidding advertised in national dailies. However, the investigative panel criticized this approach, deeming it unsuitable for national development.

Adagiri emphasized that the daily food allocation for inmates is insufficient, with inmates still receiving the old amount of N740 to N750 per day.

According to ACG Adagiri, the approved daily feeding allowance of N1.125 effective August 1, 2024, has yet to be fully operational due to funding issues.

The investigative panel highlighted the need for urgent action to address inmates feeding. The essence of the work of this panel is such that we are looking at the value that can deliver the very best”, the panel Secretary states while referring to Zambia and Malawi inmates who feed from what they produce.

The panel Secretary, Uju Agomoh who highlighted some of the provisions of Wednesday, 12th March 2025, public hearing, cited Section 14, in the provisions, sections14 talked about issues relating to the need to have the profits coming out from the correctional service farming centers and vocational workshop to be divided into three, so that we meet and some of the profits can be given to the operational barriers, and others as stipulated.

And one for the sustainability of that enterprise and another one for the directorate of the federal government consolidated reform.

The panel also today, talked about the need to ensure that something is done and is done urgently regarding inmates feeding.

The panel maintained that it is important that there must be a clear process that ensures that steps are taken to minimize the costs of those dealings, as in the case of Zambia prison; the panel also highlighted dealings with the policy that ensure it goes directly to the source.

The panel also refers to the protein content in the custodian center so that individuals can be given food, as is the case of Malawi, where the substance of foods in terms of quality and quantity that inmates eat comes from the standard that has been stipulated in the Nigerian Correctional acts 2019.

The panel also looks at the opportunity for creativity to ensure that the quality and the quantity of food inmates eat comes from the standard of the Nigeria Correctional Service Act 2019.

Suggestions that are made include, issues with looking at partnerships with organizations like the one that happens today, the Grow Me, Farm to the Table by Nigerian in Canada, and the World Bank have been represented today

The panel also looks at the processes that provide oversight, that there must be oversight in terms of contracting, oversight in terms of quality and quality of food that is supplied and provided, oversight in terms of cooking, and oversight in terms of the distribution of even the food that is cooked and provided. And that processes such as the provisions for at least meals for seven days should be enforced.

The panel also noted that in many of the facilities visited, these issues happened, and this needs to happen ” the panel highlighted.

The panel also noted the fact that food is directly connected to issues about health, inmates about mortality, and issues regarding the number of persons in custody.

It was also noted the fact that it is high time the state that has the highest number of persons who are in custody, that is statistics show that over 87% of persons in custody are from that state, that state should begin to replicate the concrete treatment of correctional service, at least at the very best minimum should start from the feeding.

The panel, beyond the issue around food, talks about also the need to increase the budgetary allocation; the panel maintained that first of all, the processes need to be brought right because if the fundamental processes are not gotten right in terms of ensuring that what is right is done in terms of contracting and food.

Earlier on in the day, the panel looked at some of the cases of inmates, and the correctional officers, the package, and welfare, in terms of benefits that are accruable to the staff, the pension, and did make recommendations about corporate society, staff retirement benefits in addition to what is already been provided in terms of having a 100% increase of what the staff has contributed on retirement, from the profit that is made through the investment that applied to this investment, because of the high cost of inflation, so that can trigger the staff towards their welfare.

The panel also commended the Nigerian Correctional Service for those things that are making into the staff welfare and urged them to sustain it.

The panel moved through the procedure concerning the hospitalization of inmates; they did mention inmates’ cases before they attended the hospital outside the correctional center and that the correctional service is doing its best to ensure that the order of the court is respected.

The panel was led by its Chairperson Dr. Magdalene Ajani, who is also the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Interior, and its Panel Secretary, Dr. Uju Agomoh, Dr. Iyke Ezeugo, Eva Omotosho Esq and Alhaji Nasir Usman and the Panel Secretariat, discussed as highlighted today will lead to a total reform in the Nigerian Correctional Service, as the public hearing continued on Thursday.