News Editor
By David Odama
The Chief Justice of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT),. Justice Husseini Baba-Yusuf, has granted freedom to 30 inmates awaiting trial at the two custodial centers in Keffi local government area of Nasarawa state.
Justice Baba-Yusuf amnesty to the inmates during an official visit to the Medium Security Custodial Centre, Keffi
Speaking to Journalists during the visit, Baba-Yusuf said the visit was aimed at disconnecting the prisons as well as ensuring that those who do not deserve to be behind bars are allowed to go free.
“We have decided to give hope to the hopeless. There are a lot of people who shouldn’t be here in the first place. So this visit is to ensure that people who have no business being here are not kept behind doors, not even for one day. That is what we have done,” he said.
He assured that the exercise will be a continuous one with visits also scheduled for the Kuje and Suleja custodial centres to ensure that those who shouldn’t be detained in the correctional centres are set free.
Baba-Yusuf blamed the congestion in the custodial centres and incarceration of those inmates who should not have been incarcerated in the first place to different factors.
“The predicament of these type of inmates have been caused by the laxity of the deciding magistrates, the police and probably the challenges of the correctional centres who are not properly equipped with a lot of logistics support that they need to bring inmates to court regularly.
“So it is good that they are encouraged with facilities to enable them deliver on their mandate. By that we will quicken the dispensation of justice and eradicate this incident of people been kept in custody when they out to be walking freely and breathing free air,” he said.
On her part, the Chief Executive Officer, Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC) a non governmental organization, Mrs Lucy Abagi said her organization is determined and committed to ensuring the decongestion of custodial centres across the country.
She commended the FCT Chief Judge for finding time to visit Keffi prisons and the release of the. inmates who she said should not have been incarcerated in the first place.
“We saw people that have been here and granted bail but could not afford as low as N20,000. We saw people that have been here due Gender Based Violence.
“Women have been here because they’ve been abused and they said no to the abuse but the complainants wanted to punish them for saying no to them and they have been here for weeks, months and years which is against the law.
“Our goal here is to ensure that people who don’t deserve to be here are out and the fact the FCT Chief Judge came himself means we are moving in the right direction. I am hoping other Chief Judges across the state will also carry out this exercise across the states,” she said.
She advised that for custodial centres to be decongested, only convicts of grave crimes should be incarcerated while civil cases should be resolved out of court, out of the correctional centres.
“Convicts of armed robbery, terrorism and so on should be remanded in the correctional centres not issues such as N20,000 or issues of saying no I don’t want to be your friend.
“Like the Chief Judge mentioned today, there are some cases the magistrate should just strike out without having to prolong the issues,” she added.
In another interview, Mrs Chioma Onyenucheya-Uko, Chairperson of Federacion Internationale De Abogados translated as International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), Abuja Branch bemoaned the incarceration of the discharged women and said her organization will intensify enlightenment to women so they can know their rights.
“One of the things I saw concerning those women’s cases was a seeming abuse of power by persons who had the influence and think they have the wherewithal to unleash the law ferociously and even wrongly against those women.
“You could see that many of them have not been convicted for anything. They were awaiting trial. This is why we try to enlighten women on their rights. When they know what their rights are, some of them will be able to brief a lawyer when those things are happening. They can come to FIDA and make a complaint,” she said.
Earlier the Controller of the Keffi Medium Security Custodial Centre,.Mr Yau Ibrahim, thanked the FCT Chief Judge for the visit noting that the visit was in line with the desire of the correctional officers to see the centers decongested.
“It is our wish to see that the custodial centres are decongested so that we can have easy means of controlling the centre. Most of the time awaiting trial inmates have the largest population,* he said.
