“Worse Than A Cage”: Shocking Truth About Ogun Correctional Centre’s Inhuman Conditions

“We slept in hundreds, like packed sardines in a room meant for just twenty people. From skin rashes to head lice, bedbugs, and then mental disorder — it was hell,” Idris (not his real name), a 50-year-old former inmate of Ibara Correctional Centre, narrated his harrowing experience behind bars in Ogun State.

According to IReporter Online, Idris’s ordeal began on a sunny afternoon in Abeokuta when he parked his car to greet an old friend near the PDP secretariat.

Unbeknownst to him, a cult clash had erupted the day before, and violence was still simmering, “They started shooting, I was shot, and I shot back.

I was outnumbered, the person I went to greet had disappeared,” Idris recalled.

He was hospitalized with a deep neck cut and later moved from Ibara Police Station to Eleweran, before being arraigned for attempted murder and unlawful possession of firearms.

For nearly two years, he was locked in what he called “hell,” his cell, overcrowded and beside the kitchen, was a furnace of misery.

“We were packed like sardines, the prison is a breeding ground for madness,” he lamented.

According to IReporter Online, the meals were grossly inadequate, with rice only on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and inmates often falling ill from poor hygiene and nutrition.

Official statistics reflect the crisis.

According to IReporter Online, Nigeria’s correctional centres house 81,287 inmates, with 53,178 awaiting trial. Ogun’s Ibara facility, built for 700, currently crams in over 1,400 inmates — double its capacity.

Access to medical care is minimal. Idris revealed that inmates are often given nothing more than paracetamol, and severe cases require family intervention. “People died of ulcer, others went mad after contracting measles,” he said grimly.

Idris warned that the system is failing, and that correctional centres are now breeding hardened criminals. “Someone who came in for stealing N1,000 leaves trained as an armed robber,” he stated.

Another inmate, Ayomide Olagoke, used his time to earn a degree in theology.

He pleaded for government intervention: “We are changed people now. Please, give us a second chance,” he said during a prison convocation ceremony.

Chief Judge of Ogun State, Justice Mosunmola Dipeolu, also raised alarm over the deplorable conditions. “There’s no space to lie down — inmates sit or stand all day,” she noted during a jail delivery exercise aimed at decongesting Sagamu prison.

Meanwhile, Ogun’s Correctional Controller, Abioye Adesina, highlighted ongoing logistical challenges and appealed to the state government for more support, especially in transportation.

Legal expert Ogaga Ediru warned that the Nigerian Correctional Service Act 2019, designed to combat overcrowding and promote rehabilitation, remains largely unimplemented. He called for urgent reforms — from more judges and improved forensic capabilities to rewriting outdated laws.

“Decongestion strategies only exist on paper,” Ediru concluded.

”IREPORTER REPORTS”