The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan on Tuesday, sharply disagreed with a former governor of Benue State now a serving Senator, Gabriel Suswan.

Suswan had suggested that senators and other elected officials in the country should have prison experiences in order to ensure good governance while in power.

The recommendation of Suswan did not go down well with Lawan, who quickly interjected by saying, only former governors should have prison experiences.

The altercations happened during a debate on a motion on the need to upgrade, decongest and disinfect correctional centres nationwide, moved by Senator Uche Ekwunife.

Suswan, who is currently being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over an alleged funds diversion when he was governor had started by explaining his two-day experience at the Kuje prisons.

He said, ” I want to support this motion based on my two-day experience in Kuje prison.

“When I left, I recommended that for people to be proper leaders in this country, at least each and everyone of us must spend one or two days in prison.”

But Lawan quickly interjected and said, “Anyone who served as a governor, yes, and deputy governor (should) probably (go through such experience).”

Not disturbed by what Lawan said, Suswam added, “I went there, they took me there in the night.”

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“The following day in the morning, the entire prison knew I was there. I sat down there from morning to evening because there were a lot of young people there.

“It might interest you to know that if you spend years in prison, there are demeanours you can easily dismiss.

“There was a young man who has spent 10 years there for just a problem of N10,000.

“Various individuals were there on very minor offences that the Police can afford to correct them and send them home.

“I made it a point of duty that when I left that place, for the next one month, I took close to 20 young people out of that place.

“It didn’t take anything, just pay the money, sent them back to court, I selected 3 lawyers who I sent to Kuje prison.

“Most of the people that are there don’t need to be there and they unduly congest the place.”

Ekwunife had noted that Nigeria maintains about 250 correctional centres formerly known as prisons, comprising of maximum, minimum, satellite prisons and others, accommodating about 74,000 inmates, spread all over various locations in the country;

She expressed worry that of the 74,000 inmates, only 24,000 are convicted, while the remaining 50,000 are awaiting trials.

She said, “Report from the National Bureau of statistics from 2011 to 2015, shows that 72.5 per cent of Nigeria’s total prison population are serving time while awaiting trial.

“This number include also, those with petty issues such as shoplifting and traffic offences.

“The unfortunate aspect being that some of these inmates must have spent more time in prison than they would have served if convicted.

“I’m very worried that it is common knowledge that overcrowding has created a very unhygienic and inhumane environment in our correctional centres.

“Indeed, overcrowding is one of the biggest challenges faced by the inmates.

“Facilities meant for say 800 inmates now hold about 4,000 inmates.

“These congestions have over the years been responsible for outbreak of diseases in our correctional centres, orchestrated also by poor medical facilities.

“God forbid, if epidemic such as Coronavirus or larsa fever outbreak should occur in these centres, it will be totally uncontrollable and a national disaster which can spread out into the general public, would happen. “

The Senate therefore urged the Nigeria Prison and Correctional Services to adequately profile inmates and separate them accordingly.

It said such action would avoid lumping of light/first offenders with hardened criminals and undertake a National Clean-Up and Fumigation of all correctional facilities in the country to avoid the outbreak of epidemics;

It also urged the Ministry of Interior to commence the process of upgrading facilities in our prison: to transform them into correctional centres

The red chamber urged the Judiciary, the Ministry of Interior and Nigerian Prison Services to work together and come up with a workable modality on how to fast track the process of decongesting the correctional centre in the country.

Apart from this, the Senate Committees on Interior, and committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters was mandated to undertake a critical oversight on the state of our correctional centers and report back to the Senate within four weeks.