Nigeria and the United Kingdom has signed an agreement on
Thursday on the exchange of prisoners between them. Under the agreement,
high-profile prisoners like former Governor James Ibori of Delta
State, and other Nigerians in the UK prisons will be
transferred to Nigeria to complete their jail terms. The UK Minister of
Justice, Mr. Jeremy Wright, signed on behalf of his country while the Minister
of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, SAN, signed
for Nigeria in Abuja. Wright, who visited the Acting Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Prof. Viola Onwuliri, and the Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, added
that the British government would give the Federal
Government £1m [about N280m} for a comprehensive reform
of Nigerian Prisons.
During the visit to Onwuliri, Wright told journalists that
under the agreement, the consent of a prisoner was not required before
his repatriation could take place. He said, “In relation to individual
prisoners, there has to be a good deal of discussion between our two countries
about individual prisoners and the agreement of both countries to be secured before
individual transfers.
The minister expressed delight that the agreement would improve the
condition of Nigeria prisons based on earlier pacts reached before the signing.
She pledged that Nigeria would continue to improve the condition of
its prisons. Also, the Director of Consular and Immigration Services in
the ministry, Mr. Abdulazeez Dankano, noted that both countries
were signatories to the Scheme for the Transfer of Convicted Offenders within
the Commonwealth.
Dankano stated that the scheme allowed for transfer of prisoners between
Nigeria and the UK where the consent of both states and the prisoner was
obtained. He said that under the Commonwealth Scheme, only one Nigerian had
been repatriated from the UK since inception.
After the agreement was signed, Wright stressed the importance of
respecting the agreement by the two countries, adding that there was a need for
the prisons in Nigeria to be improved considerably. The UK minister, who
led a five-man delegation to Moro said, although the prisoners were paying for
the crimes they committed, conditions in their detention centres
should be made humane and accommodating enough for them. He thanked the Federal
Government and Moro for making it possible for the two countries to
finalise the agreement.
He assured the visiting minister that even though Nigeria was
grappling with prison congestion, it would not hamper the new agreement. Moro
commended the British government for assisting in the reform
and transformation of Nigeria’s prison system, especially in the
provision of necessary facilities that would make the prisoner transfer viable.
There are 521 Nigerians currently serving jail terms in the UK and only
one British national in Nigerian prison .
Source: Punch
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