At the Federal Executive Council meeting this week, the FG resolved
to replace Black Maria vehicles for the conveyance of prisoners with Green
Maria.
Speaking to journalists in the State House after the weekly
FEC meeting, Interior Minister, Abdulraman Danbazzau, said the council approved
his memorandum to henceforth purchase Green Maria as against Black Maria.
He said the decision was meant to reflect the fresh
initiative not to see prisons as places of vengeance and punishment but
rehabilitation centres. Dambazzau said FEC approved N1.5billion for the purchase
of 116 Green Maria vehicles, adding that buying such a large number of vehicles
had become necessary in view of the shortage of vehicles for prison operations
at the moment.
“The third aspect is the Nigerian Prisons. That also has to
do with procurement of operational and Green Maria vehicles not Black Maria. We
just changed the name to reflect the current thinking on rehabilitation and
treatment of inmates.
We are procuring 116 vehicles…which will cost N1, 584,
64,560. Because of lack of logistics, the vehicles that have contributed in the
past are still not enough to take inmates and those awaiting trials to court,”
he said.
The minister also said the council approved N3.952 billion
for the procurement of fire-fighting trucks.
According to him, when this administration came on board in 2015, there
was only one rickety fire-fighting truck in Abuja.
“So we embarked, as part of the security sector reform
efforts, to reduce the loss and also curtail the incidence of fire. We embarked
on the procurement of fire-fighting trucks, water tankers among others,” he
added
