BY ALIYU DANGIDA

DUTSE—THE Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, has expressed shock over the state of Nigerian prisons saying that urgent steps should be taken by the Federal Government to de-congest them.

The NBA, Dutse branch in Jigawa State made this known when its officials who accompanied the state chief judge, Justice Aminu Sabo Ringim, with other stakeholders including rights activists to the prison, discovered a dead prisoner in his cell at the Garu Satellite Prisons while on a visit to the facility.

The association also called on the Federal Government to make conscious efforts to de-congest prisons throughout the country.
The inmate, Damina Audu Jauru was alleged to have died due to excessive heat in the prison which had 160 inmates as against 50 which it was meant to accommodate.

The NBA chairman in the area, Adamu Turaki Mohammed, said that some members of his association discovered the death of Mohammed in his cell, blaming it on excessive heat occasioned by overcrowding.
Muhammed also explained that the situation at the Garu Satellite Prison as inhuman saying that “over 160 inmates are kept in the prison (Garu satellite prison) as against 50 which it was meant to accommodate.

”It is, therefore, against the background of this situation that the NBA is calling on the Minister of Interior, Mr Abba Moro and Comptroller General of the Prisons to intervene with the view to addressing the situation,” he said.

The NBA further asked the Federal Government to, as a matter of urgency, commission the new satellite prison built by the Jigawa State government in Kiyawa Local Government Area, to help in ameliorating the precarious condition of the inmates in Garu Prisons considering the current excruciating hot weather to reduce the sufferings of the prison inmates across the nation.