PH Prison: 243 On Death Row, 2,560 Awaiting Trial

Not less than 243 prisoners are on death row in the Port Harcourt maximum prison.
Also, 2,566 men and 49 women are awaiting trial.
The Deputy Controller, Nigeria Prisons Service, Mr Uche Nwobi told members of the Rotary Club of Port Harcourt, DownTown, in his office that the prison which was built for 804 inmates now harbours close to 3,000 inmates.
Mr Nwobi said that the situation which is alarming is now impacting on the few facilities available in the prison.
The Deputy Controller, who was also the officer in charge of the Port Harcourt Prison told the visiting Rotarians that the authorities would be happy to partner with them in the delivery of services to the inmates.
He noted that most of the inmates had continued to remain in the prison because of  the level of public support, noting that the neglect of prisons across the country had made the  authorities fail in their duty of reforming the prisoners.
Earlier, during a church service in the prison, an in mate, who is also the pastor of protestant group of churches, Port Harcourt prison, Pastor Isaiah Gogo Kings had said that most inmates in the prison were victims of a decaying society.
He said that most of them were there because nobody was ready to assist them to fulfill their bail conditionality, and urged the state governor, Chibuike Amaechi and the state Chief Judge, Iche Ndu, to temper justice with mercy by embarking on several jail delivery exercises.
In his response, the  President of Rotary Club of Port Harcourt, Down Town, Dr Tamuno Opubo Abiye, promised that the club would reach out to Rotarians in government services to work-out ways of decongesting the prisons.
Dr Abiye also said that a medical outreach would be organised by the club for the prisons.