3,298 inmates on death row in Nigeria – NCoS

3,298 inmates on death row in Nigeria – NCoS

About 3,298 inmates in the custodial centres in Nigeria are on death row, the Nigerian Correctional Service has said..

Its Public Relations Officer, Mr Abubakar Umar, disclosed this to journalists on Tuesday in Abuja.

He however said that the term ‘condemned criminal’ had been abrogated.

With the emergence of the NCoS Act 2019 which made the prisons correctional centres, the term ‘condemned criminal’ was abrogated as it is stigmatising, Umar said.

He said that the service preferred to use a more friendly term of ‘Inmates on Death Row (IDR)’.

He pointed out that death sentences were not always carried out immediately they were imposed.

He said, “There are often long periods of uncertainty for the convicted while their cases are being appealed at higher levels.

“Inmates awaiting execution live on what we call death row; some offenders have been executed more than 15 years after their convictions.

“They were basically awaiting the hangman’s noose in our custodial centres after being found guilty of capital offences.

“We have quite a number of them; as at today, we have a total of 3,298 inmates on death row. They constitute about 4.5 per cent of the total of number inmates in our various custodial centres nationwide.”

According to him, many of them committed capital offences such as culpable homicide, armed robbery and terrorism.

“The good thing is that we engage all of them in activities that will reform and modify their behaviours,” he said.

The spokesman said that many IDRs had been executed in the past before the proliferation of the activities of human rights groups and organisations.

“We encourage state governors, who shy away from signing the death warrants, to commute them into other sanctions.

“This will ensure that the toga of death is removed from them. It will also help us to properly manage them smoothly,” he said.