FG spends N3m on feeding 4,000 inmates daily – Minister

The Nigerian government on Monday said it spends N3m daily feeding about 4, 000 inmates in prisons across the country, a figure it argued further justifies the quest for the decongestion of custodial centres across the nation.

Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo upon assumption of office some months back, moved to decongest prisons in the country. Some 4,000 inmates are billed to be released.

According to the minister, with 80,804 inmates in 253 custodial facilities, feeding the inmates takes a chunk of money from the Federal Government’s purse.

“To feed these 4,068 inmates costs the government about N3 million a day. Multiply N3 million a day by 365 days,” he said on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

The minister’s prison decongestion drive was faulted in some quarters.

Before the decongestion drive, the minister said N500m was needed to pay fines for the inmates to facilitate their freedom.

Although the move stirred debates with human rights lawyer Femi Falana calling on the Federal Government to review the plan.

But Olubunmi says the funds were raised from the private sector, arguing that a comparative analysis showed it was better off to pay the fines for the inmates.

He says since the money was not coming from the government’s purse, it made sense to go ahead with the decongestion drive.

The minister said, “we raised N585 million from the private sector to offset these fines and compensations to save the government of average of N1.1 billion per annum in feeding. That’s just the economy of scale,” he added.

“So, to me, what is the justification behind feeding somebody with N1.1 billion why holding him for N585 million, especially when that N585 million isn’t coming from the government?”