The federal government has said that the alleged excuses of not understanding some sections and provisions of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) Act 2019 by judges and magistrates in the criminal justice system would be addressed to overcome the challenge of prison overcrowding due to Awaiting Trial Inmates (ATPs) in Nigeria.

Chairperson of the Independent Investigative Panel on the Alleged Corruption, Abuse of Power, Torture, Cruel Inhumane and Degrading Treatment against the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) and Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Interior, Dr Magdalena Ajani, stated this, yesterday, during the second public hearing of the panelin Abuja.

She said that for Nigeria to have a holistic reform of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS), the committee is beaming searchlight on the justice system within the correctional service.

She said: “We have listened to the challenges the correctional service has in implementing the Act and magistrates and justices claiming that some sections of the Act are not known to them.

“We are expecting that before the end of the public hearing, those handling the criminal justice arm of the Ministry of Justice will also come and address and we hope that we will be able to discuss these challenges that have been raised by the correctional service and see how best to handle them.

Earlier, the NCS told the panel that it often experienced difficulty in relating with judges and magistrates with regards to some provisions of the Act, which they often claim ignorance of, thereby sending petty offenders to remand instead of applying non-custodial punishment to reduce prison overcrowding.

Acting Controller-General of the NCoS, Sylvester Nwakuche, represented by Ibrahim Idris of the Legal Department of the agency, explained that it is the courts that determine who goes into custody and not the NCoS, saying that the lack of awareness by some judges makes it difficult to get them to apply provisions of the Act to curb overcrowding, hence the need for awareness creation through workshops and roundtable discussions.

Secretary of the panel and Founder/Executive Director at the Prisoners’ Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA), Dr Uju Agomoh, stated that the NCoS has the power to reject ATPs referred to it by the courts if certain conditions are not met, such as if the person is unconscious, a tortured victim or underage in certain cases.

Also, President, Prison Fellowship of Nigeria, Dr Jacob Tsado, however, called on stakeholders in the criminal justice system in Nigeria to come together to learn and embrace restorative prison reforms.