I Stole A Duck But Was Placed On Death List In Prison, Convict Tells Internal Affairs Minister

A convict on the death list at the Kano Central prison at Kurmawa stunned the Minister of Internal Affairs, Gen Abdurrahman Dambazau (rtd) when he told him that his offence was stealing a duck. 

The Minister who was visibly shocked, sought to know why the convict, whose name was Mohammed Sager, was in the prison, he told Dambazau that he had spent 24 years in the prison and was never allowed access to courts and never had a lawyer.

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He went on and told the bewildered minister that, the police prosecutors twisted his case and eventually stopped taking him to court for years before he was moved to the awaiting death cell of the prison.

Naij.com reporter in Kano reports that Mohammed lamented further that since the time they stopped taking him to court, the action led him to being convicted to condemned cell.

General Dambazau who used the New Year break to visit prisons in the state, condmned the living condition of the inmates and the dilapidated nature of the central prison and promises reforms.

He said that he undertook a research on the condition of the central prison 25 years back and expressed shock that the situation is still the same.

Earlier, the comptroller of the Kano Central Prison, Ahmed Abubakar informed the minister that the prison was built in 1909 to accommodate only 400 people but now it has over 3,500 inmates with 92 condemned to death by various courts and are yet to be executed.

The minister along with other prison officials after listening from the convict and other complaints promised to look into their individual grievances when he goes back to his office at Abuja.

The Nigerian Prisons Service was established by Decree No.9 of 1972 to take custody take into lawful custody all those certified to be so kept by courts of competent jurisdiction.  It is under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior.

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