Decongestion: Minor convicts to carry out communal services in public places – Maradun

The Nigeria Correctional Services (NCS), will no longer admit convicts of minor offences in the custodial centres as part of the measure to decongest correctional facilities across the country, the Comptroller of the service in NIger State, Alh. Ibrahim Labbo Maradun has said.

He said, the service has put a measure in place to reform any of the convicted criminals on minor offences.

He told CAPITAL POST in an exclusive interview in his office in Minna, Thursday that the measure was contained in correctional service act 2019.

He said the service will instead of serving jail terms, the convicts will now be sentence to communal labour in a public place such as emir’s palace, sweeping of offices to be supervised by the correctional officers. He explained that the Comptroller General of the Correctional Services CGS Alh. Ja’afaru Ahmed, along with critical stakeholders in criminal Justice system, in the country are already, discussing on the modalities that would actualised the new reform across the correctional Centres in the country.

According to the state Comptroller, the only convicts that would serve jail terms in the reform are convict of capital offences of rapes, armed robbers, culpable homicide, among other heinous crimes.

Speaking, further, the state Comptroller of the Service, noted that the increasing congestion of facilities at the Custodial centres across the country informed the decision of the stake holders in criminal Justice system in the country to arrive at the refusal of admission of suspects of minor offences in the Custodial facilities, stressing that alternative sentences of communual service in public places to serve as punishment to those convicts was arrived at.

He explained that the correctional service act 2019, empower the service to admit none conviction in correctional facilities among other alternatives as refomatory Justice, probative, community services, among other part of measure to decongest the custodial facilities across the country as enshrined in the correctional service act 2019.

The Comptroller, Alh. Ja’afaru Ahmed observed that the Comptroller General of the service was committed to see to the decongestion of custodial facilities across the country, insisting that correctional facilities across the country will be reformed to be habitable to inmates in the country.