FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SAYS OVER 50,000 INMATES AWAITING TRIAL NATIONWIDE.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Interior Shuaib Belgore yesterday said no fewer than 52,436 inmates of the correctional centers nationwide are awaiting trial.

Belgore who disclosed this during the two-day High Conference on Decongestion and Corrections Management in Abuja explained that while 23,071 are convicted persons, 3,322 are condemned inmates on death row, stressing that there has been a steady rise in the population of the custodial centers with the least 80% of the inmates awaiting trial.

He said there are 244 custodial centers nationwide, with a 75,507-inmate population, thereby leading to 82 of them being overcrowded, adding that the total number of male inmates is 73,821, while 1,686 are female inmates.

On the feeding of the inmates, the Permanent Secretary noted that the current administration would spend 22.4 billion Naira feeding inmates in correctional centers nationwide, budgeted for in the 2023 Appropriation Act.