A lawmaker, Senator Babajide Omoworare
introduced a bill seeking to amend the criminal justice act to
make it mandatory for the Comptroller General of prison to send monthly reports
of the entire prison inmates to the Chief Justice of Nigeria and state Chief
Judges.
Minister of Interior, Abba Moro disclosed at
the second reading of the bill that 70 per cent of persons locked up in
Nigerian prisons are awaiting trial.
“This disturbing detention of persons is
tantamount to an infringement of their fundamental rights as ordained in our
constitution…the overpopulation of the prisons have largely been responsible
for the incessant jail breaks in Nigeria and with this comes the attendant
security risk to our nation as both convicted and awaiting trial inmates
disappear into thin air,” Omoworare said.
The proposed law is to ensure that the Chief
Justice shall on the basis of that report, order the release of inmates who are
detained unlawfully or detained longer than the maximum period of imprisonment.
It was revealed that several other attempts to
decongest Nigerian prisons had failed.
A federal lawmaker says previous efforts such as
an intervention fund of about N8.7 billion under the supervision of the
ministry of justice in 2006 has seen no tangible result.
Several lawmakers supported the amendment and
expressed confidence that the amendment would be the solution to the problem.
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