NIGERIAS FORMER DEFENCE CHIEF MAINTAINS LOW PROFILE IN KUJE PRISON.

Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh rtd

 The presence of a former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal, Alex Badeh (retd.) in Kuje Prison, Abuja, is generating a lot of excitement and curiosity amongst prison inmates. Masquerade234 gathered that the inmates were amazed to see the former military chief in prison custody barely few months after his image loomed larger than life.

It was gathered that the former CDS rejected food from the prison and opted to feed himself pending the time he would perfect his bail conditions. He is presently keeping a low profile in prison custody.

An inmate can reject prison food and sign for self-feeding, meaning he would provide his own food, his family members and friends can bring food for him daily, subject to the approval of the prison authorities,” an official who spoke on condition of anonymity said.

It was learnt that Badeh’s rejection of the prison food may not be unconnected with the poor quality of the food served inmates in Nigerian prisons.

The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Prisons Service, Peter Ezenwa amazed the nation last month when he said that a paltry sum of N222.30k was budgeted by the service to feed each inmate per day.

Ezenwa who stated this when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Interior to defend the Prison Service’s 2016 budget warned of a possible revolt if things continued this way.

He stated that the service made a proposal of N10.6 billion for the feeding allowance of 65,000 inmates, but that the Federal Government slashed it to N5.2 billion.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior, Senator Usman Nafada however contended that each inmate was being fed on N130 per day.

Badeh was remanded in prison custody on March 7 by Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, following his arraignment along with a company, Iyalikam Nigeria Limited, on 10 counts of money laundering.

Kuje Prison has welcomed many high profile Nigerians since it was built and commissioned by the Ibrahim Babaginda Military junta.