By: News Peddlers
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| Inmates in Prison [Photo Credit: Vanguard News] |
The controller of Correctional Service in Akwa Ibom, Julius Ezugwu, has advocated for the discharge of over 2,000 prisoners.
According to Mr Ezugwu, there are 2,851 inmates in Akwa Ibom prisons, of which 451 are convicts and 2,400 are awaiting trial.
On Wednesday, the jail controller made the request during the Law Hub Development and Advocacy Centre workshop in Uyo.
Mr Ezugwu urged the court system to devise methods to decongest Akwa Ibom's facilities.
He said that the overcrowding was caused by the enormous number of detainees awaiting trial.
Mr. Ezugwu said, “It is a problem as the centres were supposed to be a place to reform convicts and not take care of awaiting trial persons. We have a total of 2,851 inmates in the core facility of the command, that is Uyo, Ikot Ekpene, Eket and Ikot Abasi Local Government Areas.
“Out of that number, we have about 451 as convicts; the rest are awaiting trial persons. They are products of the criminal justice administration and I want to say that the correctional service had been doing its own part creditable. We have more than is provided for by the Administration of Criminal Justice System (ACJS) in Akwa Ibom.”
The prison official explained that “every quarter, we ensure that we send our returns of awaiting trial persons” to the office of the attorney general of the state and the chief judge of Akwa Ibom.
"With this workshop, all the members of the ACJS will be well informed of how to go about the challenges of overcrowding in our facilities and also make justice accessible to all the teeming inmates.
“I enjoin you to look deep and help us ensure we will be able to deliver on our mandate of humane containment of this unit because when we have more than 80 per cent of inmates awaiting trial, it becomes a problem,” stated the prison controller.
Mr Ezugwu added, “The correctional service is for the reform of convicts and not awaiting trial persons. The situation where we have a predominance of awaiting trial persons would be a challenge to all the agencies in the criminal justice system. I don’t see the awaiting trial persons as our property.”
Justice Ekaette Obot, Chief Judge of Akwa Ibom, stated that the domestication of the Administration of the Criminal Justice Act by the Akwa Ibom Criminal Justice Law would have a significant impact on criminal justice in the state.
Ms Obot, represented by Justice Edem Akpan, stated that for the law's functionality, she had issued a practise directive for all stakeholders in the legal community to follow regarding the necessary usage and operations of the law.
She, on its contrary, noted that the inability to enforce some provisions of the laws made it impossible to enjoy the benefits of the law as intended, and as such, she intended to establish the administration of criminal justice monitoring committee.
"In acknowledgement of the fact of the inoperative sections of the criminal administration justice law, I have put every arrangement in place to inaugurate the monitoring committee on the October 17, to carry out the statutory role as specified in the law," she added.
"It is the inoperative sections of the law that have made this workshop very timely," he noted, "to enhance effective application of all sections of the law by practitioners." I believe this workshop will meticulously assess how far Akwa Ibom has progressed in implementing the law and also improve its implementation."
(NAN)