Hon.  Chinenye Ferdinand Ike

By Stanley Nkwazema in Abuja

The N200 daily feeding for prisoners in the country has been described as grossly inadequate and embarrassing to the reform system being advocated for the prisoners.

The member Representing Isiala Ngwa North in the National Assembly and former Vice Chairman House Commitee , Hon.  Chinenye Ferdinand Ike who spoke with THISDAY decried the paltry sum  allocated to each prisoner for a day in the 2012 budget. He  described it as a big shame to the advocates of the reform system.

Hon Ike said “Its a shame that somebody could even think about that amount in the first place for the feeding of Nigerian Prisoners. When it was N450 in the previous budgets, we kicked against it and yet it is slashed. It is not in tune with reality when you look at the fact that the N200 cannot give you a square meal and every human being deserves three square meal. Even people who are free in this country needs more than N1500 to have an adequate meal."

Ike explained that the Nigeria is far from meeting the global best practices in Prison reform and administration since the country still regard the institution as a dumping ground for prisoners and punishment rather than a place where their lives could be turned around for the better.

The committee member of Interior, Defence and Electoral Matters said the "failure in criminal justice delivery has caused the overflow of inmates of Nigeria prisons which has an installed capacity to accommodate only 47,284,but presently there are about 51,560 Prisoners in the country."