The Controller General of the Nigeria Correctional Service, Haliru Nababa, admitted before the joint National Assembly Committee on Interior on Thursday that dogs are fed better than inmates at the nation’s correctional facilities.

Nababa disclosed this when he defended his 2024 Budget at the National Assembly.

He said, “The Nigeria Correctional Service has written the Minister of Interior requesting for the review of the amount we are using to feed the inmates from N750 per day, to N3, 000 per day. We are still waiting for the approval.

“We are therefore seeking the assistance of the National Assembly to approve the increment.

When the joint panel demanded the breakdown of the menu being served the prisoners as breakfast, lunch and dinner, the CG and his team said they have the menu of what the prisoners should eat as breakfast, lunch and dinner based on the locality they are being remanded.

The CG, however, said they were not with the menu chart.

He added that the quantity of the food and the ingredients needed to prepare it are contained in the chart.

The Chairman of the Committee and former governor of Edo State,  Adams Oshiomhole, APC, Edo North, expressed surprise that  the NCS has 900 dogs across its custodial centres and it spends N800 every day to feed them while N750 is spent on an inmate.

He said, “53, 352 or more are not convicted yet, they are awaiting trial. They are not guilty of any offence known to law. They are innocent under our laws. For an innocent Nigerian who is being held in a correctional home, N250 per meal is grossly inadequate. I wonder what you are feeding them with. They are obviously underfed.