The Nigerian government has revealed that it spends N3m daily to provide meals for approximately 4,000 inmates in prisons nationwide.
Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo made the revelation when he recently appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
He said:
“To feed these 4,068 inmates costs the government about N3 million a day. Multiply N3 million a day by 365 days.”
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Since assuming office, Tunji-Ojo said, he has been actively working toward plans to release 4,000 inmates.
According to him, currently, there are 80,804 inmates housed in 253 custodial facilities, and the cost of feeding them places a substantial burden on the Federal Government’s finances.
Before the decongestion efforts, the Minister stated that N500m was required to pay fines for the inmates to facilitate their release.
He further revealed that the funds were raised from the private sector, and a comparative analysis has shown that it is more advantageous to pay the fines for the inmates.
He added that despite some debates surrounding this initiative, including calls from human rights lawyer Femi Falana to review the plan, the Government remained steadfast in its commitment to decongesting prisons and was optimistic about the positive impact it will have.
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.
“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?”
