No fewer than 3,298 inmates in prisons across the country are on death row, the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) has revealed.

Its spokesman, Abubakar Umar, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja.

He explained that the term’ condemned criminal’ was abrogated with the emergence of the NCoS Act 2019, which made the prisons correctional centres.

Mr Umar said the service preferred using “inmates on death row (IDR),” stressing that death sentences are not always carried out immediately after they were imposed.

“There are often long periods of uncertainty for the convicted while their cases are being appealed at higher levels. Inmates awaiting execution live on what we call death row; some offenders have been executed more than 15 years after their convictions,” the prison official added.

Mr Umar explained they were “basically awaiting the hangman’s noose in our custodial centres” after being found guilty of capital offences.

“We have quite a number of them. As of today, we have a total of 3,298 inmates on death row. They constitute about 4.5 per cent of the total number of inmates in our various custodial centres nationwide,” he disclosed.

Mr Umar also mentioned that some IDRs had been in custody for many years, adding that some had been held since they were arrested up to when they were tried and sentenced.

According to him, many of them committed capital offences like culpable homicide, armed robbery, and terrorism, among others.

“The good thing is that we engage all of them in activities that will reform and modify their behaviours. The goal is to make them better citizens of the nation. We also make them undergo personal development programmes like anger management, civic education, as well as entrepreneurship,” the prison official stated.

“Some of them, who do well and show some glimpse of hard work, industry and discipline, are recommended for clemency to the relevant authorities,” he said.

The spokesman said many IDRs had been executed in the past before the proliferation of the activities of human rights groups and organisations.

“Currently, there is somewhat a kind of moratorium on execution of offenders. Before the moratorium on execution of IDRs became widespread, executions of IDRs were being carried out as and when due,” stated Mr Umar. “But with the rising activities of human rights groups, many governments shy away from signing the death warrants of these offenders.”

He revealed that the last execution of IDRs was in 2016 in Edo, encouraging “state governors, who shy away from signing the death warrants, to commute them into other sanctions.”

Mr Umar said, “This will ensure that the toga of death is removed from them. It will also help us to properly manage them smoothly.” 

(NAN)