Justice Mohammed Adoke, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, has given the Prison Decongestion Committe a 90-day ultimatum to set free inmates who should not have been incarcerated.
The committe, which was set up in July, had toured prisons in the 36 states of the federation.
The nine-member committee is headed by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry,Abdullahi Yola.
Statistics obtained from the ministry shows that as at December 2009, the committee had reviewed only 11,833 cases out of the 47,956 cases referred to it.
The records also showed that another 7,711 accused persons were on bail while 28,412 cases were pending before various courts in the country.
The minister charged the committee to work assiduously in line with its terms of reference and ensure that before the end of September, there would have been nationwide decongestion of prisons by about 30,000 inmates.
The source said the directive was necessitated by the minister's determination to “aggressively and purposefully'' deal with every component of justice administration process and
enthrone a holistic reform that will be a positive legacy.
The Attorney General is determined to achieve the prison decongestion goal, hence in addition to the Committee, he has invited the Nigerian Bar Association for a stakeholders’ meeting on the urgent need for justice sector reform, which the prisons form part of.
He is also partnering with the Ministry of Interior and the various Heads of Courts across the federation to identify reasons for undue
delays in the trial of cases, which inevitably impacts negatively on dispensation of justice,'' the source said.
According to the source, the committee is to, among other things, ensure that indigent accused persons get legal representation by engaging private legal practitioners to undertake the defence of such persons in courts across the 36 states of the federation and the FCT.
In cases where indigent convicts are given an option of fine, it is also the responsibility of the Committee to pay such fines.
The committee also has the mandate to periodically submit reports on discharged inmates, those granted bail and convicts, as well as liaise with relevant government agencies with a view to making progress on the prison decongestion programme,’' the source said.
Commenting on the decongestion efforts by the Justice ministry, an Abuja-based lawyer, Umar Ahmad more than 65 per cent of prison inmates nationwide were awaiting trial persons, many of who are petty offenders.
Most of them are subjected to excruciating detention conditions, sometimes for periods longer than they would have been incarcerated, even if convicted,he said.
Ahmad commended the ministry for the initiative designed to eliminate the problems associated with prison decongestion.
If the committee looks into the problems of prison congestion in the country, we would have made our prisons a rehabilitation and reformation centre rather than a place where hardened criminals are bred,'' he said.
Another lawyer, Jamila Nuhu, also said positive results could be recorded in the process of prison decongestion.
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