Britain has announced plans to build a new 112-bed wing at Kirikiri Prison in Lagos so that it can transfer Nigerian prisoners there, foreign secretary, Boris Johnson said in London today.
In a written statement to parliament, Johnson said tenders had been
placed and a supplier identified to conduct the building work at
Kirikiri. He did not name the supplier. The project will be funded from
Britain’s Conflict, Stability and Security Fund, which has an annual
budget of more than 1 billion pounds and aims to commission projects
that can help prevent conflicts and stabilise countries or regions.
The new 112-bed wing, which will cost 700,000 pounds ($973,000) and
be compliant with United Nations standards, will make it easier for
Britain to comply with a prisoner transfer agreement it signed with
Nigeria in 2014. Under that deal, eligible prisoners serving criminal
sentences in Nigeria and Britain can be returned to complete their
sentences in their respective countries. The British government did not
indicate how many prisoners might be moved or when the project is likely
to be completed.
Nigerian prisons many of them built by British colonisers more than
100 years ago are severely overcrowded, leading to the spread of
diseases. The Nigerian government has said it is developing a strategy
to tackle the issue.
Britain’s own prison system has been showing signs of severe strain
in recent years, with overcrowding, rising suicide rates and a growing
problem with drug trafficking and other crimes within jails that were
sometimes built in the Victorian era. Kirikiri is not one of the oldest
prisons in Nigeria but it does date back to colonial times.
Last month, the government said the prison in the southern city of
Port Harcourt, which was originally designed to hold 800 prisoners,
currently has nearly 5,000. It said 3,700 of them had been awaiting
trial for more than five years.
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