The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) has said there are about 3,298 inmates on death row in Nigerian prisons.
NCos public relations officer, Abubakar Umar, who disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja, however, said that the term ‘condemned criminal’ had been abrogated.
With the emergence of the NCoS Act 2019 which
made the prisons correctional centres, the term ‘condemned criminal’ was
abrogated as it is stigmatising, he explained.
He said that the service preferred to use a
more friendly term of ‘Inmates on Death Row (IDR)’.
He pointed out that death sentences were not
always carried out immediately after 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 of number inmates in our various custodial centres
nationwide,” he disclosed.
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