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| Gov. to Free 25,000 Prison Inmates |
| By This Day (Nigeria) |
| Published: 01/09/2006 |
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The Federal Government is to decongest the 227 prisons spread across Nigeria by freeing about 25,000 inmates out of 45,000 including those who are presently awaiting trial and others. It has also approved the immediate appointment of a Chief Inspector of Prisons and the establishment of a board of visitors for each of the prisons, although the services of the board members will be on a voluntary basis. The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Bayo Ojo (SAN), who disclosed this yesterday, while briefing State House Correspondents shortly after the first Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting for the year presided by President Olusegun Obasanjo, said that the issue of Awaiting Trial Inmates has become endemic and has resulted in the increase in jail breaks across the country. Ojo, who emphasized that the recent intervention by the Federal Government on prison congestion has become expedient, also disclosed that "it has been decided that we should create half-way houses in all the six geo-political zones where the inmates will be released for rehabilitation, learn a trade and then they will be ready to get back into the society. Also, those who are incarcerated, whose term would have expired if they had been convicted, will be released unconditionally. "Those who have been in detention from between three to ten years will be interviewed and their case will be looked into on a case by case basis. And also, we are going to start massive prosecution of these cases so that we will ensure that those who are going to be taken to court will have their day in court. Then those who have missing case files, after going through the due process, they will also be released and anybody found culpable on the issue of missing case files and so on will be brought to book accordingly." The minister also noted that other prison inmates who would receive their freedom under the latest intervention by government will include the aged, the terminally ill, and those who would have finished their sentences had they been tried. He added that "in Nigeria today we have 227 prisons but out of this, a total of about 40,444 inmates are in the prisons. But out of this, the critical ones, particularly the ones in urban areas where the problems are, are a total of 144 prisons were audited by the National Working group which was chaired by Mr. Frank Nweke, the information minister. "Now, out of this group, 65 per cent are awaiting trial. Out of this 65 per cent, some of them have never seen the inside of a court room before for various reasons ranging from the fact that their case files are missing, the person investigating the case has been transferred to another location or has retired from the police force. You find some who out of old age are terminally ill and also some of them who are there if they had been tried and convicted, they would have finished serving their terms". Giving further insight, Ojo also stated that " the council has decided that all these situations will be looked into on a case by case basis. If there is anybody in prison who has been given bail and cannot meet the conditions, they will also be given legal conditions for bail. Those with terminal illnesses, they too will be released. Then the ones who are for trial, they too will be taken to court on a massive decongestion basis". |
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