The Abia State Command of the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) has refuted claims that its officials mistreat inmates with disabilities housed in custodial centers across the state.
This is even as the NCoS has explained why it does not allow people living with disabilities to use wheelchairs in the custodial centres.
The NCoS officer in charge of records at Umuahia Correctional Centre, Chukwu Iheke, refuted the allegations on Friday while responding to the outcry by the Abia State Chairman of Spinal Cord Injury Association of Nigeria, Prince David Onuoha, who narrated how his members in various custodial centres in the state are prevented from using their wheelchairs, and sometimes, their metallic clutches, inside correctional facilities.
Such treatment, according to Onuoha, has caused his members physical, emotional and psychological trauma.
But Iheke, who represented the NCoS at a stakeholders’ meeting organized on strengthening access to justice for all in Abia by The Centre For Transparency Advocacy, said the decision to checkmate the use of wheelchairs was to prevent a situation where an inmate may use a metal object to kill his co-inmate during a fight.
Iheke who said the NCoS has been offering assistance to the vulnerable inmates, lamented that only 4 out of the 7 operational vehicles are functional to convey inmates to the 54 courts being covered by Umuahia Correctional Centre.
“That is why we not able to provide inmates in court sometimes as required by magistrates and judges,” he said.
He further said that the NCoS in collaboration with the Abia State judiciary is doing everything to decongest the custodial centres, which resulted in the recent jail delivery carried by Abia State Chief Judge, Justice Lilian Abai.
In her speech, the Executive Director, Center For Transparency Advocacy, CTA, Faith Nwadishi, said that efficient and equitable administration of criminal justice is central to upholding fundamental rights and justice.
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