The comptroller general of Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) Ja’faru Ahmed yesterday hinted that the service is in receipt of a waiver to employ 6,545 staff in different cadre with a budget of N6 billion available for the new personnel.
He also informed that the service is set to introduce mechanized agriculture in prison farms to enable prisoners produce adequate food to feed themselves and also relieve the high financial burden on the federal government.
Making his presentation at the 2016 budget appraisal and 2017 defence before the House of Representatives committee on interior, Ahmed stated that one of the challenges the service faced is inadequate personnel.
He noted that the service spends over N16billion annually to feed about 72,000 inmates across all prisons in the country adding that the 2016 budget performance has an outstanding of N5 Billion owed contractors for the feeding of prisoners.
Ahmed also explained that on assumption of office, he was compelled to review the work schedule from three to two shifts stressing that the new schedule portends danger as the long work hours exposes personnel to the possibility of becoming accomplices in jail break.
