NHRC to Undertake Nationwide Prison Audit Following Rising Cases of Jailbreaks

NHRC to Undertake Nationwide Prison Audit Following Rising Cases of Jailbreaks

In the wake of the rising spate of jailbreaks across the country, the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, on Tuesday announced the commencement of a nationwide audit of prisons facilities.

This was contained in a statement signed by Head of its Media Unit, Mrs. Fatimah Agwai Mohammad, where the commission said it would also visit other detention centres in the nation, Vanguard reports.

According to the commission, the 2016 Prison audit exercise flagged off in Awka, Anambra State, would go on simultaneously in all the 23 states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, where the NHRC has zonal and state offices.

“The prison audit exercise will examine the general condition of the prison inmates, the prison officials and prison infrastructure and make appropriate recommendations to the authorities,” the statement read.

“The audit will particularly examine the access to justice issues and welfare of both awaiting trial inmates and convicts and make appropriate recommendations to authorities and stakeholders. “This audit will be followed by a national prison conference to examine the issue of human rights of prison inmates and the challenges of security at the prisons.

 “The outcome of the audit and the conference will help to proffer solutions to the current spate of jailbreaks in the prisons.

“This year’s Prison Audit exercise was flagged-off by the Executive Secretary of the Commission, Prof. Bem Angwe, working in collaboration with the National Assembly.”

It will be recalled that there’d been attempted jailbreaks in Kogi, Nsukka, Abakaliki and Kuje prisons over the past three months.