Human rights group known as Lawyers Alert has in conjunction with Prison Inmate Development Initiative (PIDI-NIGERIA) issued a 5-day warning to the Bauchi State Government to implement the federal government’s directive on prison decongestion or face legal fireworks. The NGOs made their position known on Tuesday in an open letter to the State Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice, signed and made available to newsmen by the Executive Director of PIDI-Nigeria, Mbami Sabka in Bauchi.. The letter, titled, “Re: Federal Government Directive On Decongestion Of Correctional Facilities, Need For Activation said, “without doubt, we are all aware of COVID-19 Pandemic, the consequences and the science of its infection which without doubt makes the correctional service centres (prisons) a place of high risk infection. The organization said, “with over 72,000 inmates in congested and largely unhygienic places, infections can be an inferno within this context if interventions are not quickly carried out”. The group which said the intervention include decongesting the correctional service centres of inmates awaiting trial and other groups of inmates, expressed confidence that such was what informed the recent approval given by President Muhammadu Buhari on the urgent need to decongest Nigeria’s correctional service centres.. The groups expressed confidence that within 5 working days from the date of the service of the letter, it will be possible for the office of Bauchi State Attorney-General to facilitate the release of inmates that are qualified for the gesture by carrying out an enumeration of all of them in accordance with the accompanied guidelines and file same in court for appropriate releasing orders. Source: Today.NG
1 Comment
Idris Sulaiman Shanono
13/11/2020 04:21:34 pm
This is a sensitive and welcoming development
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