As part of its prisoner transfer agreement and arrangement with Nigeria, the government of the United Kingdom said it will build a 112-bed wing prison in Nigeria.
The prison will be an addition to a maximum security prison in Ikoyi Lagos, the country’s financial capital.
According to Reuters News, The new 112-bed wing, which will cost 700,000 pounds ($973,000) and be compliant with United Nations standards, will make it easier for Britain to comply with a prisoner transfer agreement it signed with Nigeria in 2014.
Under that deal, eligible prisoners serving criminal sentences in Nigeria and Britain can be returned to complete their sentences in their respective countries. The British government did not indicate how many prisoners might be moved or when the project is likely to be completed.
Nigerian prisons — many of them built by British colonisers more than 100 years ago — are severely overcrowded, leading to the spread of diseases. The government in Abuja has said it is developing a strategy to tackle the issue.
Britain’s own prison system has been showing signs of severe strain in recent years, with overcrowding, rising suicide rates and a growing problem with drug trafficking and other crimes within jails that were sometimes built in the Victorian era.
