16,400 Nigerians
in UK
jails
From
Adetutu Folasade-Koyi, Abuja
Senators
yesterday sang discordant tunes over the fate of about 16,400 Nigerians
languishing in prisons across the United Kingdom (UK).
Some
Senators wanted the National Assembly to pass a resolution which would compel
the Federal Government to bring the prisoners back home as the UK Government
spend £1.6m to feed the prisoners per day. Others countered that the nation’s
economy cannot accommodate such influx.
This
came up during the debate on a bill for an Act to repatriate Nigerian convicted
prisoners serving various jail terms in the Common Wealth countries sponsored
by Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN).
Senator
Benedict Ayade told the Senate that “in the United Kingdom alone, Nigerians
serving various prison term are 16, 4000 in number and it cost the UK
government about 1.6 million pounds per day to feed them.”
Senate
President David Mark expressed unhappiness at the number of Nigerians serving
jail terms in the UK
alone.
He
said: “There are safeguards in the bill, but I am shocked to hear that there
are 16,400 Nigerians in various prisons abroad, this is a thing not to be proud
of, we don’t know the authenticity of the figure, but it calls for concern. The
lesson is that we should improve our prisons for the purpose of reformation, it
is not right to transfer the responsibility of reformation to other nations.”
Leading
debate on the bill, which seeks to amend the transfer of convicted offenders
(Enactment and Enforcement) Act, Senator Ndoma-Egba who sponsored the bill
which was read for the first time on July 20, 2011 stated that the bill was to
give effect to the Common Wealth scheme on convicted offenders between Common
Wealth countries.
He
added that the bill was seeking to amend the provisions of the extant Act by
removing the consent and verification procedure of returning convicted
prisoners to serve their term in Nigeria.
Ndome-Egba
noted that the present Act is replete with some deficiencies that if not
adequately addressed would jeopardize its execution, adding that it was the
recognition of the inherent shortcomings in the extant Act that necessitated the
need to amend it.
To
effectively streamline the law, the Senate Leader insisted that Sub-section
5(1)(d) and Section 8 of the Nigeria Constitution, seeking the consent of the
convicted offender and which has to do with the consent and verification of the
convicted offender of the principal Act were to be amended respectively.
Senators
opposed to the bill insisted that the financial implication of transferring
prisoners back home would be too much for the country to shoulder. They also
said that apart from the action being an infringement of fundamental human
right of an individual, they also said that nobody would be convicted abroad
especially the UK and would like to serve his jail term in Nigeria even if it
was just a week.
The
bill was however referred to Committee on Judiciary, Human Right and Legal
Matter when constituted.
Sun
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