<\/p>\n
By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata<\/strong><\/p>\n The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), has raised alarm over the shortage of medical personnel to treat 8,246 inmates suffering from mental health conditions nationwide.<\/p>\n The disclosure came on Tuesday during the third public hearing of the Independent Investigative Panel on Alleged Corruption, Abuse of Power, Torture, and Other Inhumane Treatment by the NCoS in Abuja.<\/p>\n Dr. Glory Essien, Assistant Controller General of Corrections (Medical Services), said incarceration often triggers psychological distress, with some inmates showing signs of disturbed behaviour immediately after losing their freedom.<\/p>\n She noted that due to staff shortages, the service relies on trained inmate-leaders to spot early symptoms, but overcrowded facilities and limited resources hinder effective care.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re in a facility with 500 to 1,000 inmates and you\u2019re the only doctor or psychologist, you can\u2019t monitor everyone,\u201d Essien said, citing drug shortages and logistical challenges.<\/p>\n Assistant Controller General (Pharmaceutical Services), Mohammed Bashir, confirmed that inadequate funding has worsened the crisis.<\/p>\n He said providing basic supplies, such as sanitary pads, costs over \u20a64 million monthly, while medications in most centres run out within weeks despite visits by consultants to 12 high-need facilities.<\/p>\n Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Interior, and panel chair, Dr. Magdalene Ajani, called for urgent reforms, equitable deployment of mental health professionals beyond major cities, and stronger public-private partnerships to improve access to care.<\/p>\n \u201cPlease come to Macedonia and help us,\u201d she appealed to the Nigerian Medical Association and pharmaceutical companies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), has raised alarm over the shortage of medical personnel to treat 8,246 inmates suffering from mental health conditions nationwide. The disclosure came on Tuesday during the third public hearing of the Independent Investigative Panel on Alleged Corruption, Abuse of Power, Torture, and Other Inhumane Treatment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":73010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73011,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73009\/revisions\/73011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}