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The Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Kazeem Alogba, on Thursday granted amnesty to 30 prisoners in the state and directed their re-integration into the society.
The 30 are among 40 inmates slated for pardon by the chief judge.
The chief judge ordered that six of the remaining 10 inmates should be returned to prison.
He said that the remaining four names had errors.
The 30 inmates were pardoned during an open court session presided over by Alogba at the premises of Ikeja Magistrates’ Court, Ogba.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that those granted freedom include four juveniles at Borstal Training Institution, Adigbe, Abeokuta, where juvenile offenders are remanded and given educational and vocational training to rehabilitate and reform them before re-integration into the society.
The others were released from Ikoyi custodial facility and Kirikiri custodial facility.
Some of the inmates had been in the facilities since 2013.
The chief judge, while releasing the inmates, said that the exercise was in line with efforts by the Federal Government to decongest custodial centres as stipulated in Section 1(1) of the Criminal Justice Release from Custody Act of 2007 and Section 377 (c) of the Administration of Criminal Justice (Amendment) Law 2021.
“I am not a Father Christmas; the exercise we are witnessing today is a self-cleansing exercise as provided for in the law.
“It is guided by relevant laws upon fulfillment of requisites,” he said.
Alogba said the amnesty was given to those who had stayed longer than they would have stayed upon conviction and those whose trials had been stalled.
According to him, the exercise was as a result of systemic failure that is not the fault of the judiciary but due to ancillary factors.
The chief judge commended the committee that looked into the cases of those released, saying that it did a thorough job.
According to him: “Since it is a matter required by law, we must be diligent in carrying out the exercise.
” The members of the committee have done excellently.
“I insisted on several occasions that the committee goes through due process, which they have done, and I assure you all that they will continue to go through due process.”
Deputy Controller, Nigeria Correctional Services (NCS), Lagos Command, Comfort Obiosio, represented the Controller of NCS, Lagos Command, Mr Ben Freedman, at the event.
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Freedman said that almost 9,000 inmates were in the three custodial facilities in the state, expressing worry that the facilities were being over-stretched.
He urged the chief judge to use his good offices to release remorseful inmates in order to decongest the facilities.
“We have almost 9,000 locked up in Lagos, and we hope the CJ uses his good offices to free those qualified and decongest the facilities,” he said.
The Lagos State Commissioner for Police, Mr Idowu Owohunwa, represented by Deputy Commissioner of Police Waheed Ayilara, said that the Nigeria Police was a partner in justice administration.
“We cannot continue to keep the 9,000 inmates as it is highly unbearable.
“Those who are about to get freedom today must have learned one or two lessons.
“Being in correctional centres does not mean you cannot be re-integrated back to the society.
“The police will continue to be diligent in their investigation in order to help with the decongestion,” Ayilara said.
