The Federal Government has announced that a total of 3,789 inmates have so far been released from the Nigeria Correctional Service Centres across the country since the outbreak of Coronavirus in the country to curb the spread of the virus among inmates.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, made this known at a press conference in Abuja, while recounting the achievements of the Presidential Committee on Correctional Service Reform and Decongestion, since it was inaugurated in October 2017.
According to the AGF, the Committee, since its inauguration, has visited and appraised about 39 prisons in 18 states in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He added that there is an ongoing construction of 3,000-capacity maximum security custodial centres in Karshi, Abuja and in Janguza, Kano State.
Chairman of the Committee and Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Justice Ishaq Bello, said during the visits to the correctional centres nationwide, that the Committee carried out inspection exercises where a number of facilities were discovered to be in dire need of urgent rehabilitation and recommendations were made to the relevant authorities for the renovation/construction of the facilities.
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He said the committee, after a review of cases of inmates eligible for Prerogative of Mercy and condemned convicts on death row for over 10 years, has written and kept writing letters of appeal to several State Governments to act on some special cases encountered during the visits to some states as well as to exercise their powers of clemency in deserving cases or commute to life sentence those condemned to death.
(Editor: Paul Akhagbemhe)
