By Peter Duru

MAKURDI—Over 46,000 out of the 69,000 inmates in Nigerian prisons are currently awaiting trial, making the country the fifth with the highest pre-trial detention population in Africa, trailing Libya, Benin Republic, Congo DR and Central African Republic.

Country Director of Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants, CURE-Nigeria, Mr. Sylvester Uhaa, who stated this in separate letters the organisation wrote to governors across the country, urged them to initiate justice and prison reforms programmmes to address the anomaly.

CURE-Nigeria, in the letter, also enjoined state governors to invest in rehabilitation of prisoners and reintegration in their respective states warning that “prison reforms can no longer be left for the Federal Government alone.”

Uhaa said: “Almost all the prisons in big cities across the country are holding thrice their designated capacities, which triggers frequent jail breaks.”