A Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Anthony Makolo, has urged correctional facilities in the country to focus more on reformation of inmates.
Makolo, the founder of the Makolo Anthony Empowerment Foundation for Indigent Inmates (MAEF), made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Tuesday.
He said that correctional centres would be more effective if inmates got reformed after serving their prison terms.
“These centres must function in line with global best practices; they should live up to their mandate of correcting and reforming inmates,” he said.
Makolo condemned the inclusion of tax clearance in bail perfection, especially as done in Lagos State, saying, “this has not helped in achieving the objectives of the correctional centers.”
“When suspects are arraigned, they are often granted bail with tax clearance as a condition for their sureties; this is sometimes not easy to perfect,” he said.
He said that some correctional centres, especially in Lagos State, were in a serious state of congestion because of the difficulty in perfecting bail conditions.
“Sometimes you spend up to N400,000 to secure the bail of a suspect who committed an offence worth N100,000,” he said.
The MAEF founder said that the inability of some sureties to perfect bail conditions had hugely contributed to the congestion of many correctional facilities.
“When the centres are congested, it becomes difficult to control, correct, and carry out reform measures,” he said.
He urged the federal government to intervene by removing tax clearance as a precondition for admitting inmates to bail.
“When inmates overstay in correctional centres due to inability to secure bail, they simply become worse than what they used to be,” he said (NAN)
