Death Row Inmates Rises By 98 In 6 Months, Prisons Acting CG Reveals

ABUJA—The Nigerian prisons, has revealed that the number of prisoners on death row had risen from 3,590 in September 2024 t0 3,688 in March 2025, representing a 2.73 per cent increase or 98 prisoners within six months.

The prisons also sought strategic collaboration with the Nigeria Police, Department of State Services, DSS, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC, to speed up the wheel of justice in the country.

Acting Controller-General of prisons, Mr. Sylvester Nwakuche revealed the figure, yesterday, while the Senate Committee on Interior chaired by Senator Adams Oshiomhole was screening him for the position of substantive controller-general.

Nwakuche was accompanied by his Principal Staff Officer, Mr. Godwin Okosun; Deputy Controller, Mr. Babatunde Ogundare; acting Controller-General, Mr. Sylvester Nwakuche; and Assistant Controller General, Mr. Ahmed Adagiri, among others, to the screening exercise, yesterday.

Responding to questions at the screening with facts and figures, yesterday, Nwakuche disclosed that no fewer than 3688 inmates were currently on death row in the country compared to 3,590 recorded in September 2024.

He explained the major challenges facing the prisons in the country, revealing that the majority of inmates “Are currently awaiting trials. That is our major headache we are trying to address on a daily basis.”

The acting CG said: “Inmates on death row are now 3688 from 3,590 in September 2024. State governors are part of our challenges. They refuse to execute inmates on the death row, neither do they commute their death sentence to life imprisonment.

“If they commute death sentences to life imprisonment, it is easier for us to distribute them to rural prisons which are not as congested as those in urban prisons.“This is because the issue of congestion is a major urban phenomenon. Our prisons in urban centres are more congested than those in rural areas. If we commute them to life sentencing, we will be able to distribute them equitably,” he added.

He pledged to collaborate with other security agencies more strategically to ensure that the issues of awaiting trials were permanently resolved so that the prison can be decongested.

He further emphasised collaboration and synergy specifically with the Nigeria Police, EFCC, DSS and ICPC, among others, to decisively address the challenge of awaiting trials in all the correctional facilities nationwide.