NIGERIA: DEATH ROW INMATES NOW 3,688, AG NCOS CG TELLS SENATE

March 13, 2025:

The Acting Controller General of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Mr. Sylvester Nwakuche, on March 12, 2025 said 3,688 prisoners are currently on death row in various correctional centres across the country.
He said the number rose from 3,590 in September 2024 to 3,688 in March 2025.
He said the figure represented a 2.73 per cent increase because additional 98 prisoners joined the existing ones on death row within six months.
Nwakuche revealed the figure on March 12 while the Senate Committee on Interior chaired by Senator Adams Oshiomhole was screening him for the position of substantive controller-general.
He said the major challenges facing the correctional service in the country, was the issue of prisoners awaiting execution.
The acting comptroller-general said: “Inmates on death row are now 3688 from 3,590 in September 2024. State governors are part of our challenges.
“They refuse to execute inmates on the death row; neither do they commute their death sentence to life imprisonment.
“If they commute death sentences to life imprisonment, it is easier for us to distribute them to rural correctional facilities which are not as congested as those in urban correctional facilities.
“This is because the issue of congestion is a major urban phenomenon. Our correctional facilities in urban centres are more congested than those in rural areas.
“If we commute them to life sentencing, we will be able to distribute them equitably,” the acting comptroller-general said.