The inability of the courts to process persons charged with criminal offences quickly has led
to congestion of this population in our prisons.
One of the main reasons for the inability of the courts to process offenders quickly
is due to the limited transportation infrastructure of the NPS. Specifically, the total number
of vehicles available for the NPS to transport offenders to courts nationwide is two hundred
and sixty-eight 9268) (with a coverage area of seven hundred and seventy-four (774) local
governments areas and five thousand and twenty two (5,022) courts across the thirty-six
states of the Federation and the FCT) For example: Kuje Prison services ninety-five courts
within and around the FCT, the total number of Black Maria (small vans) available are three.
Summary of Nigerian Prisons statistics as at March 2016
Total number of prisons in Nigeria as at March, 2016
Type of institution
Number
Main prisons
138
Satellites prisons
85
Farms centres
14
Borstal
3
Total
240
Total number of inmates by Legal Status and Sex as at March, 2016
Convicted
17,456
207
17,663
Unconvicted
43,111
753
43,864
Total
60,567
960
61,527
The Nigerian Prison Service is meanwhile collaborating with the Judiciary, Federal
and State Ministries of Justice and the Non-Governmental Organizations/Nigerian Bar
Association in order to find out ways of pushing through needed reforms in the Criminal
Justice Sector that will help to entrench fair and faster trials of suspects in custody. This has
resulted in the resubmission of the Nigeria Prisons and Correctional Service Bill, 2016 for
enactment into law by the national Legislature.
This new reach out to stakeholders is yielding results because new and innovative
ways of speeding up the trial of cases are being adopted in several States with very
remarkable results.
Meanwhile the transformation of the Nigerian Prisons is continuing with the
enthronement of Corrections in the system very much in sight.
54