The 10th Senate on Tuesday expressed dissatisfaction with the frequent jailbreaks that have been happening across the country in recent years.
This happened as the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, expressed regret that many jailbreaks have happened following a change of name from the Nigeria Prisons Service to Nigeria Correctional Service.
Akpabio mentioned this while discussing a bill to amend the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission Act, highlighting the 'deception' in adopting the name, Nigeria Correctional Service.
He said, "Since the name change, we have seen more jailbreaks," and added that "laws are meant to punish and correct. When you are convicted and sent to prison, you're supposed to learn skills and ethics. It's not only about calling it a correctional center when we're not actually correcting anything."
"I support thoroughly examining the bill for the amendment of the RMAFC Act to avoid repeating the same mistake we made with the Correctional Services name."
It's been observed that at least 10 jailbreaks have occurred since the name was changed from the Nigerian Prisons Service to the Nigerian Correctional Service by President Muhammadu Buhari on August 15, 2019, after signing the Nigerian Correctional Service Act, 2019 into law.
Research has shown that in the last ten years, around 20 jailbreaks have taken place in Nigeria, a situation the Senate President attributed to incompetence and deception.
A total of eight prison outbreaks were recorded in Nigeria between 2021 and 2022 alone, leading to over 4,000 inmates escaping.
In 2021, there were five prison breaks, and in 2022, there were three across the country.
On April 5, 2021, 1,844 inmates escaped from the Owerri Correctional Centre, Imo state, after gunmen attacked the facility, after which the NCoS ordered a probe.
Three months later, on July 8, 2021, four awaiting trial inmates escaped from the Jos Custodial Centre, Plateau State.
Another jailbreak happened on September 13, 2021, at Kabba Correctional Centre, Kogi state, where over 2,400 inmates ran away. Also, on October 22, 2021, gunmen attacked the Abolongo medium-security custodial centre in Oyo State, among many other jail breaks.
The latest jailbreak happened in April 2024, as 118 inmates fled the Medium Security Custodial Centre, Suleja, Niger State, after a downpour damaged facility.
