2,745 Condemned Inmates Awaiting Death Nationwide

The Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS), says about 2,745 inmates condemned to death are awaiting execution in its facilities across the country. The Comptroller-General of NCoS, Ja’afaru Ahmed, disclosed this at a media parley and facility tour to Dukpa farm centre, Gwagwalada, on Wednesday in Abuja. Ahmed,  represented by the service spokesperson, Francis Enobore, said the reluctance by some state governors to sign death penalty sentence of the condemned inmates was one of the factors contributing to congestion in the Correctional facilities. “Some state governors are not willing to sign death sentences of condemned inmates, neither are they ready to commute their death sentence to life imprisonment,” he said. “This is important; some of its provisions empower Correctional centres to reject inmates so that facilities are not overcrowded,” he said. The Comptroller-General also revealed that 22 former members of the Boko Haram group, who had been de-radicalised by the correctional service, had sat for the Senior School Certificate Examination. He described the de-radicalisation process by the service as part of its rehabilitation measures.