Mr Samson Sunday Ajayi is a retired Chief Warder in one of the nation's prisons. He spoke with SEGUN ADIO. Excerpts:
There is a recent call for creation of states owned prisons. What is your take on this?
It is absolute rubbish for states to own their own prisons. Prisons are strictly Federal Government's business. If cases are tried in courts where the offences are committed, then you carry the suspect to a federal prison. The case that belongs to state would be tried in the state and a federal case is tried in a federal court.
When you were in the service, was there any disagreement between states and the Federal Government on this issue?
State and federal governments have never disagreed on the issue of prisons. States have no business meddling in prisons matters. It will be a very difficult system to operate in Nigeria if the states are allowed to own their own prisons. Look at the issue of state police. It has been an age long debate in the country and it may be very hard to approve.
Let me tell you advocates of state prisons know what they are doing and why they want that to happen. But what I know is that it will be abused, you cannot trust that perceived political opponents would not be cramped into those prisons since it they are owned and controlled, so to say, by the state government. State prisons will be exploited by local politicians against their perceived enemies. The owner of state prisons will misuse the prisons.
Apart from that, there is an act that allowed only Federal Government to control prisons in the country and that is for a purpose. The needs of these inmates are catered for by the Federal Government. Imagine a state with a large population in its prison yards but with limited resources.
The question you ask is that where does such state get the funds to feed the inmates appropriately; where would that state get the funds to buy all household materials, bedding, clothing, toiletries etc needed by the inmates. We have talked about equipping the prison to standard and paying the warders there wages commensurate with international standard.
Prisons are such a complex and expensive venture that is best left with the federal government alone. Many people out there do not know how much it costs the federal government to run the prisons on yearly basis. We are all still complaining of inadequate facilities in our prisons and some people are talking about having state prisons. It is a misplaced argument as far as I am concerned.
National Mirror
Our Nigerian prisons are nothing to write home about right about now. It's just all filled up and it makes no sense.