Kirikiri, Ikoyi prisons, record 32 prisoners’ deaths in one year

The Lagos State Controller of Prisons, Mr Olumide Tinuoye on Monday disclosed that thirty two prison inmates died in one year owing to their inability to access funds for good medication and drugs.

Tinuoye disclosed this to the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Adeniji Kazeem  who visited the Ikoyi and Kirikiri prisons on a fact finding mission to access and have a first-hand information of the conditions under which the inmates live.

According to Tinuoye, the prisons also lost one female inmate to death last month after being on dialysis for over two years.

He said that often times, prison officials use their personal money to buy drugs for the inmates while others live on the philanthropic gestures of churches and mosques which have been assisting to provide medication for the inmates.

The state controller of prisons stated that there are 7,714 inmates in all the prisons across the state, 6,047 of are awaiting trials, 1,390 convicted, 202 already condemned while 75 are serving life sentences.

He stated for instance Ikoyi prisons which has a capacity of 800 presently has a total of 2,508 inmates, 461 of which are convicted and 2,047 while Kirikiri Medium prisons with a capacity of 1,700 has 2,979 inmates out of which 2,634 are awaiting trial while 345 are convicted inmates.

The state Attorney General, Mr Adeniji, disclosed that there is hope in the horizon for the inmates as the government has set a committee headed by the Director, Office of the Public Defender (OPD), Mrs Salami to review the cases of awaiting trial with a view to ensure that the inmates don’t continue to stay in prison unjustly or die in the process of waiting.

Mr Adeniji who said he had taken note of the drug situation of the clinics in the various prisons promised to seek the support of the state’s ministry of health for provision of drugs to the sick inmates.

The Commissioner of Justice also emphasized the need for the federal government to show more interest in the prisons and to work out a system to assist those who are sick, particularly to prevent an epidemic like meningitis likely to be occasioned by severe heat currently being experienced in the state.

“We don’t want to experience a prison break in Lagos, The prisons is supposed to  reform inmates and not to make them want to make them want to break out on the account of ill-health,” he said.