Lagos CJ frees 30 inmates from prison

 

No fewer than thirty (30) inmates were yesterday set free from the custody of the Correction Centres in Lagos and Ogun States.

The inmates were released by the Chief Judge (CJ) of Lagos State, Justice Kazeem Alogba. 

The lucky inmates who were granted freedom included four young boys from Adigbe Forster Home, Ogun State, who were minors at the time they committed the offence for which they were arrested.

Sadly, some of them have been in custody since 2013 before they were eventually granted freedom by the CJ.

The event which was held under the Decongestion of the Custodial Centres Exercise 2023 at Justice Samuel Ilori Court House, Ogba, was executed under the powers conferred on the CJ under Section 1(1) of the Criminal Justice Release from Custody Special Provision Act and provisions of Administration of Criminal Justice Law 2019 of Lagos State.

In setting the inmates free, Justice Alogba, who urged the freed inmates to sin no more, explained that the exercise was carried out to ensure that the inmates do not stay in prison longer than they would have served if convicted.

According to the CJ, “It is for this reason and so many other reasons that the exercise is put up, and this is the reason the exercise doesn't hold too frequently”.

While commending the Justice Adenike Coker-led committee that looked into the cases of those released for doing a thorough job, Justice Alogba declared, “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 well”.

Justice Alogba described the case of the freed inmates as a systemic failure.

In his words: “Failure not because the courts are not sitting but failure as a result of hitches in the course of prosecuting offenders.”

Justice Alogba explained that he was not releasing the inmates because he had just returned from the holy pilgrimage, just as he added, “I am not a father Christmas. The exercise we are witnessing today is a self-cleansing exercise as provided for in the law.

“The committee has gone through due process in carrying out the exercise. I would still insist on due process and diligence in all that we do”.

In his address, the Comptroller of Nigeria Correction Service (NCS), Ben Freedman, revealed that about 9,000 inmates are in three Correctional Centres in the state.

Represented by the Deputy Comptroller of the NCS, Lagos Command, Comfort Obiosio, he prayed to the CJ to ensure that privileges were given to some remorseful inmates to decongest the Custodial Centres.

Freedman said, “We have almost 9,000 locked up in Lagos, and we hope the Chief Judge uses his good office to free those qualified and decongest the facilities”.

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police (CP), Idowu Owohunwa, represented by the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Waheed Ayilara, posited that the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), as a partner in the justice system, would continue to ensure due process in carrying out its services.

He also urged the CJ to make the exercise a continuous one to reduce the number of inmates in the prison, noting that the maximum capacity should be about 1,500.

"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 into society. The police will continue to be diligent in their investigation to help with the decongestion,” Ayilara stated.

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