By Joseph Onyekwere
Monday, August 08, 2005

The House of representatives last week waded into the financial scam in the Nigerian Prison Services which led to the recent suspension of Abraham Akpe, as comptroller-general.

Last Tuesday, the House mandated its internal affairs committee to conduct public hearing on the motion sponsored by Jumoke Okoya-Thomas and backed by other members on how to arrest the rot in Nigerian Prisons. 'We need to find out what the problems are because we have done everything possible to take care of their needs but they still have a lot of problems," she said.

The problem of the prisons did not start today. It has only progressively degenerated and the house wants the entire prison hierarchy probed. "Some prison officers look worse than the prisoners they are guarding and many officers have made it clear that they won't stake their lives for the job. Moral is at the lowest ebb," the legislators said.

The House was particularly bothered about financial impropriety in the Prison Services and promised to get to the root of the problem. The scam was said to have led to the deductions of salaries of prison staff. The outrageous monthly deductions in the salaries of the staff of the Nigerian Prisons Services, has become a source of worry to its officials.

Officers who earn about N30,000 monthly loose N12,000 as rent deductions. Some of the affected workers who spoke to Newswatch on conditions of anonymity said this situation was affecting their ability to cope with their financial responsibilities. Those affected are officers accommodated at the prisons barracks. "Some of these houses are built in the1930s and we are still charged heavily for them," said an affected officer at the Kirikiri Prisons. He added that the ministry of Housing's attention has been drawn to this issue and a decision was taken to reduce the rent to N1,500 and nothing has been done till date.

Those who spoke to Newswatch in Alagbon lamented the sorry state of their barracks. They noted nothing was done by the panel on prisons barracks rehabilitation set up in 2001 by President Obasanjo.

But Fatiniku Ope, the public relations officer, PRO, of the Nigerian Prisons, Lagos Command, denied these allegations, challenging those who claimed to be short-paid to come forward with their evidence. He insisted that all the staffers were paid correctly up to July, 2005.

He said that junior officers living in the barracks were not paying any rent to the government. It is only the officers who live outside the barracks that are entitled to housing allowance. "Government is supposed to pay you housing allowance because it has not provided you with accommodation. So once it has provided you with accommodation, it can't pay you housing allowance again." Noting that this cannot be called deduction. He insisted that government cannot provide accommodation for officers and at the same time pay them housing allowances. He advised that any officer who was dissatisfied staying in the barracks, to seek alternative accommodation.