Nigeria frees 2,600 inmates from prison

 

BY OUR REPORTER

The Federal Government Thursday announced amnesty for 2,600 persons held in prison at the custodial centres of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS) across the Federation.

Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who announced the decision at a World Press Conference said it was in line with President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s goal of decongesting the prison, a task now given urgency by the outbreak and continued spread of #COVID19.

Those who will benefit from the amnesty, according to the minister, are inmates who are 60 years and above; those suffering from ill-health likely to terminate in death; convicts serving three years and above and have less than six months to serve; inmates with mental issues and inmates with option of fine not exceeding N50,000.

“In a symbolic gesture of the amnesty given to the 2,600 inmates across Nigeria, 41 Federal inmates and 29 FCT inmates making a total of 70 inmates who met the above criteria will be released today (Thursday) from the Kuje Custodial Centre in Abuja,” Aregbesola announced.

However, inmates sentenced for “violent extreme offences such as terrorism, kidnapping, armed banditry, rape, human trafficking, culpable homicide and so on” are not affected by this presidential pardon, the minister said.

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He explained that governors of the 36 states under whose jurisdictions most of the inmates were incarcerated will complete the exercise in line with the federal principle.

As at April 6 2020, there are 73,756 inmates in Nigerian Custodial Centres; 21,773 are convicts while 51,983 are Awaiting Trial Persons (ATPs), the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Ahmed Ja’afaru said in his remark at the press conference.

Ja’afaru said no case of COVID-19 has been recorded in any of the custodial centres in the country, so far.

He said the NCS had adopted measures to prevent the entry and spread of the disease into the custodial centres. These include stopping of visits to inmates, provision of hand sanitisers and extra screening of officers on duty.