By Victoria Ojeme
ABUJA—The ministerial committee set up to investigate the attack on Konton Karfe prison in Kogi State has attributed rising incidences of jail breaks to congestion in almost all the prisons in the country.

Speaking at the submission of the report, yesterday, to the Minister of Interior, Chairman of the five-man committee, Mr. John Odah, traced the congestion of prisons in the country to undue delay in the trial of inmates.

He said: “Many of the cells are supposed to accommodate just 50 persons. But what we have is three times that number.”

Odah also stated that, in view of the security challenges confronting the country, there was need to fortify prisons to forestall future occurrences of attacks on prisons.

He appealed to the Minister to convince members of the National Assembly to undertake visits to prisons located in their constituencies to enable them appreciate the report submitted by the committee.

Speaking further, he lamented that instead of the prison becoming a correctional facility, it had turned into a breeding ground for deviant characters, adding that most of the inmates in Nigerian Prisons awaiting trial were transformed into deviants.