Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed has observed that the Bauchi Custodial Centre is old and over-stretched with minimal comfort for those sentenced to serve for specific periods of time.
The governor, however, expressed satisfaction with the reforms going on in the correctional service where convicts and inmates are being shown empathy and sympathy, and can punish people even outside the custody. Saying this is very ingenious of the Nigerian Correctional Service.
Bala Mohammed made the expression when he received the North East Zonal Correctional Service, Assistant Controller-General Yahaya Adamu Sambo, at the Government House, Bauchi recently. He assured the coordinator of the state government’s continued support to enable him discharge his statutory duties in Bauchi and the entire North East zone.
The governor directed the Secretary to the State Government, Ibrahim Mohammed Kassim, to as a matter of urgency provide the coordinator with an official residence and vehicle to facilitate the smooth conduct of his duties.
Earlier in his speech, the Correctional Service Zonal Coordinator intimated the governor,
“We have a plot of land at Inkil over the years where efforts to develop and relocate the old custodial centre has not yet come to fruition”.
Yahaya Sambo, however, expressed hope that with Governor Bala Mohammed on board, the relocation of the old custodial centre will soon be a reality if not on Inkil, but a better site. He pointed that “I believe you would be able to do it because we have seen what you can do on the seat of governance”.
He told the governor that the service had a lift by way of the new Act that came into force in 2019 which has widened the scope of the Nigerian Correction Service with the addition of a Directorate of Non-Custodial Service which, according to him, de-emphasise containment or imprisonment, and de-emphasise level of dehumanisation on the human part.
According to him, by way of the Act, the judicial officers have the option to give non-custodial sentencing like probation, community service and so forth to especially first offenders to give an opportunity for them to amend and become better citizens.
While describing the governor as ‘pace-setter’, the coordinator observed that if he could learn the magic he used in transforming Bauchi State within a short period of four years, he would have replicated it to take the zonal service forward.
