FG distributes drugs, medical products to prisons nationwide

The Federal Government has distributed drugs and other medical products worth millions of naira to prison formations in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory. 

The Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (retd.) who presented the drugs to state Comptrollers of Gombe, Rivers, Ogun, Enugu and Niger on Thursday in Abuja admonished the prison authorities to judiciously utilise the medical supplies for the benefit of prison inmates.


The minister stated that the drugs and the medical products were for inmates, stressing that it was the responsibility of the state comptrollers to ensure the health and well-being of the inmates under their jurisdiction.

He noted that drug supplies to prisons had been stalled for sometime and thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for approving the supply of the drugs which he said was necessary in modern prisons’ practice to prevent and treat diseases.

Dambazau said, “Modern prisons’ practice include good medical treatment of inmates  as well as their welfare. We must be able to rehabilitate them so that by the time they come out of prison, they would have been completely rehabilitated. Everyone is worried about the prisons’ situation especially the issue of congestion and overcrowding.”

The minister also inspected the warehouse where the drugs were being kept for evacuation to the different state prisons commands.

The Comptroller-General of Prisons, Ja’afaru Ahmed, in his remarks said the prisons had experienced infrastructure decay including lack of drugs and other medical necessities such as blankets, for some time.