Senate condemns N300 meal per day for inmates

By Ignatius Okorocha
The Senate Committee on Interior has condemned the budgetary proposal of N300 for three meals per day, for inmates in Nigerian prisons in 2018.
The committee led by Senator Andy Uba, made this known at the 2018 budget defence of the ministry at the weekend.
Reacting to questions by members of the committee, the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Prisons Service, Ahmed Jaa��afaru told lawmakers that N17 billion was allocated for feeding which is to be spread across the 244 prison facilities in Nigeria and to cater for 73,962 inmates.
He explained that the N300 was for the actual meal and N150 is expended on cooking.
In his reaction, Senator Chukwuka Utazi criticised the Executive arm of government for the meagre allocation.
He said that the treatment given to the inmates a�?would make them gradually become hardened, rather than being reformeda�? when they are eventually released into the society.
The committee called for a review of the allocation for the feeding for prisoners, adding that any proposal that does not provide monies in the neighbourhood of a minimum of N500 per meal is not acceptable.
Earlier, Senator Uba tasked agencies under the committee’s supervision to embrace timely delivery of well-articulated reports, in order to aid the lawmakers in the performance of their oversight functions.
In another development, the committee mandated the Interior Ministry to provide necessary documents in support of its spending and argument on the Service Wide Vote within two days..
The Minister of Interior, Abdurahaman Dambazzau, in his response to the question on illegal migration, told the lawmakers that the ministry was working on the return of Nigerians in Libya.