ABUJA— MINISTER of State for Agriculture, Otunba Bamidele Dada, was yesterday turned back from defending the ministry’s 2005 budget proposals by the Senate Committee on Agriculture on account of alleged indiscipline by the Minister, Alhaji Adamu Bello. Also yesterday, the Senate Committee on Internal Affairs expressed disgust at congestion in Nigeria’s prisons which they described as not different from slave ships of old.
Members of the Committee on Agriculture who were rankled by the absence of the minister accused him of persistently dishonouring invitations by the committee. Responding to the development, the Minister of State told newsmen that the committee action could not have arisen from official activities of the ministry as he alluded to personality differences between the minister and the committee.
Announcing his leadership of the ministry’s delegation at the beginning of the consideration of the budget hearing, the Minister of State had informed committee members that the minister was yet to resume from leave to perform the lesser hajj. Otunba Dada’s explanation was immediately challenged by the committee chairman, Dr. Bode Olowoporoku, and other committee members who accused the minister of indiscipline.“We are calling the attention of the presidency to this, it is an act of indiscipline that is the way I look at it. Maybe he has no respect for this committee and we need to put it on record that he has not been forthcoming,” Dr Olowoporoku said.
Other committee members present including Senators Mohammed Aruwa, Julius Ucha spoke in the same vein, as they accused the minister of consistently failing to honour invitations before the Senate Committee. Sources said the minister had shunned all committee invitations since the committee frowned at the exorbitant rates the minister allegedly approved the sale of fertilizers.
The conflict between the committee and the minister took a personal turn when Senator Olowoproku was earlier this year expelled from the Federal Government Cocoa Board for alleged indiscipline.
Following a unanimous agreement by committee members, it was resolved that the minister be given another 24 hours to appear before the committee to defend the ministry’s budget proposals.
Speaking to newsmen after his encounter with the committee, the Minister of State said the dispute between the minister and the committee could not have been an official matter as he said that he was well positioned to articulate the ministry’s positions before the committee. “I want to make it clear that it has nothing to do with the work of the ministry as you very well know,” the minister said as he pleaded that personal differences be set aside. “Let us put personal conflicts aside and move ahead with the national assignment to get agriculture moving in this country,” he said.
Responding to a question on the likelihood that personal problems between the minister and Senator Olowoporoku could have caused the face off, he said: ”May be, because you members of the media have written a number of things in your papers and you could take it up from there. There have been some allegations and there have been replies to those allegations.”
Meanwhile, the Senate Committee on Internal Affairs has expressed disgust at congestion in the Prisons, saying that prisoners are being held in conditions similar to those of slave carrying ships of the pre-colonial era. The report of the committee’s tour of the nation’s prison and Immigration services formations obtained by Vanguard also found that lack of vehicles was contributing to the congestions in making awaiting trial inmates to miss their court appointments.
The committee report endorsed by committee chairman, Senator Abubakar Sodangi, further said the abandonment of contracts for the construction of new prisons had exacerbated the congestions in the prisons. Besides, the report noted that the prisons were crowded owing to the inability of a number of inmates with sentences with options of fines in the range of N1,000 to pay the required fines leading to over population of the prisons.
The nationwide tour of the prisons which took place between June and September 2004 revealed that the Ikoyi Prison was the most congested prison in the country. The prison which was originally built to house 800 inmates was discovered to be housing nearly 2,917 inmates at the time of the committee’s visit. The report also disclosed the dilapidation of infrastructure in the prisons and in some places the living quarters of the Prison warders, many of which were constructed in the early part of the last century.
Observing the living condition of the prisoners, the committee report said: “Prison inmates are in crowded cells well in excess of their capacity with the resultant congestion that makes it easy for diseases to spread amongst inmates. A tour of the cells revealed such congestion that inmates had to take turns in sleeping and had to sleep in the fashion of slaves in ship holdings in times past.”
In its recommendations, the Senate Committee, among others, charged the Federal Government to vigorously pursue the principles of the 3Rs to wit: Rehabilitation, Reformation and Reconstruction, in its bid to return the inmates to normal lives in society. “The principles of 3Rs which are Reformation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction must be vigorously pursed by the government. Consequently, the workshops must be well-equipped with modern facilities for skill acquisition; the programme of mechanised farming should also be in place in the Prisons. This would prepare the inmates to be useful to themselves and the society after their release.
“The government should promptly decongest the Prisons by completing all abandoned projects. The existing ones should be refurbished, in some cases new structures put in place especially the Ikoyi Prison where the Governor of Lagos State promised to provide a piece of land and make donations towards its completion.
“The Federal Ministry of Justice on its part should expedite action on awaiting trial inmates. They should through their forum discuss with state Chief Judges to expedite action on all awaiting trails and to make periodic/regular visit to Prisons to dispense justice on inmates with minor offences. This will go a long way in decongesting the Prisons,” it said.
