TheCable

Rauf Aregbesola, minister of interior, has asked state governors to sign the death warrants of “condemned criminals” that “are not mounting any challenge to their conviction” so as to decongest prisons.

The minister made the plea while speaking in Osogbo, Osun state, on Friday.

He said the nation’s correctional facilities are being stretched by “an overpopulation capacity of 18 percent” — with facilities built to serve 57,278 inmates currently holding 68,747 inmates.

Aregbesola said to remedy the decongestion, convicts on death row who have used up all means of appeal must be hastened to the gallow.

“There are presently 3,008 condemned criminals waiting for their date with the executioners in our meagre custodial facilities. This consists of 2,952 males and 56 females,” the minister said.

“In cases where an appeal has been exhausted and the convicts are not mounting any challenge to their conviction, the state should go ahead, to do the needful and bring closure to their cases.”

He said the federal government plans to build more correctional facilities in all the country’s six geo-political zones to complement the 3,000-capacity custodial centres under construction in Kano, Rivers and Abuja.