At least 3,298 inmates across custodial centres in the country were on death row, the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), has revealed.
Its Public Relations Officer, Abubakar Umar, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
He noted that the term ‘condemned criminal’ had been abrogated, with the enactment of the NCoS Act, 2019.
Umar said that the service preferred to use a more friendly term of ‘Inmates on Death Row (IDR)’, clarifying that the death sentences were not usually executed immediately they were imposed.
“There are often long periods of uncertainty for the convicted while their cases are being appealed at higher levels. Inmates awaiting execution live on what we call death row; some offenders have been executed more than 15 years after their convictions.
“They were basically awaiting the hangman’s noose in our custodial centres after being found guilty of capital offences.
“We have quite a number of them; as at today, we have a total of 3,298 inmates on death row. They constitute about 4.5 per cent of the total number of inmates in our various custodial centres nationwide,” he said.
Umar said that some IDRs had been in custody for many years, adding that some had been there since they were arrested up to when they were tried and sentenced.
According to him, many of them committed capital offences like culpable homicide, armed robbery, terrorism, among others.
“The good thing is that we engage all of them in activities that will reform and modify their behaviours. The goal is to make them better citizens of the nation.
“We also make them undergo personal development programmes like anger management, civic education as well as entrepreneurship.
“Some of them, who do well and show some glimpse of hard work, industry and discipline, are recommended for clemency to the relevant authorities…” he said.