Nigeria and the United Kingdom have reached an understanding to begin a prison swap programme. This would be launched as soon as Nigeria signs its Prison Act into law.
The Chairman Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Senator Dahiru Tambuwal said this on Monday at the flag-off of 2012 prison audit by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Kuje Prison.
The Senator said funds for the programme, which the United
Kingdom is willing to provide, would be used to renovate prisons so as to make
the facilities habitable enough and kept at least to meet minimum world
standard to accommodate inmates. The United Kingdom, he added, has promised to
provide money to fund the process of prison inmates’ exchange.
Senator Tambuwal said that the Bill seeking the amendment of
the Prison Act has gone through the second reading and would be finally passed
by the senate in two weeks, after which the Prison swap process can begin.
“The process to evolve a new prison law has gone beyond the
second reading as we are now looking at it clause-by-clause,” Daily Times
quoted him as saying. “It is expected that in about two weeks, the process
would have been completed and the amendment effected.”
The Senator did not give details of the Prison swap
programme in the news report. This is what I am even more curious about. Are
they bringing British prisoners serving time to Nigerian Prisons and taking
Nigerian prisoners abroad? Or would it be a situation where Nigerian prisoners
serving time in the UK would be brought to the renovated prisons here in
Nigeria in order to decongest their own prisons? What is the whole essence of
the Prison Swap programme? What benefits does it hold for the Nigerian and UK
government?
Any thoughts?
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