Briefing State House Correspondents on NEC’s deliberation on the issue, Bauchi State Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar said the AGF’s presentation on decongestion of prisons gave special consideration to condemned criminals.
The National Economic Council (NEC) yesterday asked Governors to act on 2,359 condemned convicts in different prisons across the country.
The call was made at the end of the NEC meeting held at the Presidential Villa, where issue of prison decongestion and condemned convicts was discussed.
The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami briefed the council on prison decongestion.
Briefing State House Correspondents on NEC’s deliberation on the issue, Bauchi State Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar said the AGF’s presentation on decongestion of prisons gave special consideration to condemned criminals.
He said as at last Wednesday, the country had a total of 2,359 condemned convicts nationwide and that, they posed threat to the country’s prison system.
“The threat they present to the prison system is very clear because these are set of people the system has already condemned and the need to carry out whatever sentence that has been passed by the courts is very imminent,” he said.
He said the AGF recommended that state governors may wish to carry out a review of the cases of condemned convicts within their jurisdiction as enshrined in section 212 of the 1999 Constitution.
“For example, all the prisons in Bauchi do not have the facility for execution of condemned prisoners. If a prisoner is convicted to death in Bauchi he will have to be transferred to Jos prison for execution. “And when that is done the two governors of Bauchi and Plateau have to sign the warrant of execution. The Plateau state governor may say I don’t know anything about this condemned person after all he was not convicted in my state. This is one of the things causing congestion,” he said.