The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) has reported a rise in the number of prisoners on death row, increasing from 3,590 in September 2024 to 3,688 in March 2025.
Speaking before the Senate Committee on Interior on Wednesday, March 12, Sylvester Nwakuche, the acting controller-general of NCoS, said the 2.73 percent increase, equivalent to 98 additional prisoners, was due in part to state governors refusing to either execute inmates or commute their sentences to life imprisonment.
“Inmates on death row are now 3,688, from 3,590 in September 2024. State governors are part of our challenges,” Nwakuche said.
“They refuse to execute inmates on death row; neither do they commute their death sentence to life imprisonment. If they commute death sentences to life imprisonment, it is easier for us to distribute them to rural correctional facilities, which are not as congested as those in urban correctional facilities.
“This is because the issue of congestion is a major urban phenomenon. Our correctional facilities in urban centres are more congested than those in rural areas. If we commute them to life sentencing, we will be able to distribute them equitably.”
Nwakuche emphasized the need for stronger collaboration with security agencies to tackle the issue of prolonged awaiting trial cases in correctional facilities.
“This is very important for any establishment to forge ahead. An establishment like correctional centres cannot do anything without collaboration. We are the one at the receiving end of the products of all the prosecuting agencies,” he said.
“The Nigeria Police, EFCC, DSS, Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Immigration Service, and ICPC will bring all these products to our doorpost. They expect to turn around and push them into society and be law-abiding citizens. If we must meet this expectation, we need to collaborate more meaningfully.
“When I met with the inspector-general of police, I said some of your inmates are in our facilities. They have stayed up to five or six years. Some of them are not needed to be in our facilities any longer.
“If they have been sentenced, some of them will not spend up to two to three years in prisons. But they have stayed in our facilities for six years. For me, such persons should be discharged and acquitted. That is one area we must collaborate to decongest our facilities.
“I also met the director-general of DSS on the need for collaboration. I met the attorney-general of the federation for the same reason. Some of the inmates are waiting for the advice of the director of public prosecution. If we do not reach out to these agencies, our people will continue to be in prisons unnecessarily.”
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior, Adams Oshiomhole, stated that the panel would submit its report based on Nwakuche’s performance.
