The Controller of the Federal Correctional Service in Niger State, Alhaji Muhammad Hamisu Isah, has raised alarm over the shortage of water at the correctional facilities in the state, saying the shortage of water might cause an epidemic at the centres.
He said the inmates have to trek some distance to source water, which, according to him, poses a serious danger to the inmates.
Speaking in an interview with journalists at the Minna old Medium Security Custodian Centre, the controller stated that the service spent a huge amount of money to buy water on a daily basis.
According to the controller, the only available borehole at the centre has broken down for the past two years, and all efforts to raise funds for the repairs have not yielded any positive results.
"The three boreholes in the Custodian Centre have broken down for the past two years. All efforts to raise funds to repair them have not yielded any results.
"I'm appealing to individuals and corporate organisations to assist in repairing them," he said.
He described as painful the deliberate refusal of the Niger State Government to assist the centre in the state to repair the broken-down boreholes, stating that successive administrations in the state have not been of assistance to the correctional centre.
"The ineptitude and insensitivity of the previous administrations in the state to the inmates is disturbing.
"Some of these inmates are indigenes of the state, and it is painful that successive administrations of the state have not been of assistance to the suffering of the inmates," he asserted.
Speaking further, Hamisu Isah told journalists that the state government has a duty to support the correctional facility and the inmates in the custodial centres, "but it's quite unfortunate that some state government's deliberately refuses to extend support to correctional facilities in their respective states.".
He explained that apart from some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and religious bodies that have been of assistance to the inmates and the correctional centres, "we have been neglected by the government.".
He then appealed to the present leadership of Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago to come to the aid of the inmates by effecting repairs to the broken boreholes to alleviate their suffering.