Nigeria seeks to exchange prisoners

Nigeria Prison Service is exploring the possibility of exchanging prisoners with her Ghana counterpart. The Controller-General of the Nigeria Prison Service, Alhaji Ibrahim Jarma, announced this at a durbar with officers and men of the Ghana Prison Service in Accra on Monday as part of his three-day tour of the country.

The visit formed part of a bilateral programme between the two institutions. Alhaji Jarma said presently, there were 45,000 prisoners held in prisons in Nigeria, made up of citizens from all over the sub-region. He said the programme would allow for the exchange of foreign prisoners to serve their prison terms in their home countries.

Alhaji Jarmi said that the two countries would also exchange staff in the areas of training, explaining that the Prison Services in all the sub-region needed a well-train staff. He noted that, the programme would enable the staff of both institutions to be trained on how best to handle inmates without trampling on their basic human rights. Alhaji Jarma noted that, the Prisons Service in Nigeria had embarked on total reforms to restore the image of the service.

The Executive Director of Prisoner?s Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA) Dr Uju Agomah, who accompanied the Controller-General, deplored the situation where leaders refused to equip the prisons when in power but complain about those same conditions when they found themselves there as prisoners.