96 inmates awaiting trial at the female and male sections of the Medium Security Prison, Kirikiri, Lagos were on Tuesday released by the Lagos state Chief Judge, Justice Ayotunde Phillips, DailyPost has gathered.
Those who benefited from this kindness were eight women and 88 men, who had been awaiting trials for upward of three to nine years.
The exercise was aimed at decongesting the prisons and in exercise of the Chief Judge’s powers under Section 1 (1) of the Criminal Justice Release from Custody Special Provision Act CAP C40, 2007, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria.
The Chief Judge, who was accompanied by senior members of the judiciary, including Judges and the Chief Registrar, admonished the freed inmates to be of good behaviour.
“There is a saying in the legal circle that it is better for 10 guilty persons to be free than for one innocent person to be incarcerated.
“To err is human, to forgive, divine. Nobody is above mistake. When you leave these walls, you should go away and make something of your lives. You should make a vow never to return here again because I am sure you have learnt your lessons.”
“I release you all from custody today and admonish you to go and sin no more,” she said.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Deputy Comptroller of the male section of the medium prison, Mr. Tunde Ladipo said in spite of the volume of those released, the prison was still congested with awaiting trials.
“We need you to visit this place again to lessen our burden,” he pleaded.
The visit of Justice Phillips to the male section of the prison was marked with a novelty football match, choir ministration and drama where the lead character was given a stage name of Ayotunde Phillips by the inmates.
He also disclosed that the male section, which was built to accommodate 1,700 inmates, presently houses 2,496 out of which 2,344 are awaiting trials and 152 have been convicted.
Ladipo called for the introduction of suspended sentencing, community service and parole into the Nigerian justice system.
He said, “Some inmates here are barbers. We have computer experts, shoes makers or cobblers, actors and mechanics. Ten of them wrote WAEC last year and eight of them had six credits. This year, we are enrolling 25 inmates for the GCE.”
On her part, his counterpart at the female prison, DCP Isioma Onwuli, said the facility had a capacity to hold 211 inmates.
Onwuli said the prison had 207 inmates comprising of 36 convicts, 167 awaiting trial inmates, three condemned inmates and one serving life imprisonment.
She added that there were four pregnant women and nine babies in the facility, noting that these category of persons need special care.
It would be recalled that Justice Phillips released 279 inmates from the Kirikiri Maximum and Medium Security Prisons and Ikoyi prisons last year.
She remarked that the matter of awaiting trials and decongestion of prisons was very close to her heart.
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