Justice Aisha Bashir-Aliyu, the Chief Judge (CJ) of Nasarawa State, has released 167 inmates across the five custodial centres in the State.
Bashir-Aliyu freed the inmates during an official visit to the custodial centres in Lafia, Wamba, Nasarawa and Keffi Local Government Areas of the state.
Speaking at the end of the visits on Thursday in Lafia, the CJ said that the tour of the facilities was in line with the extant laws.
She added that the move was also in compliance with President Bola Tinubu’s directive to decongest custodial centres in the country.
The CJ explained that the law empowers her to go round the custodial facilities from time to time to review cases of awaiting trial inmates to ensure that justice was served.
“The exercise is aimed at seeing to the health and well-being of the inmates, to free those wrongly incarcerated or whose jail terms are more than the punishment they were charged for.
”The prisons are not places meant to punish the inmates, but to reform them and make them better persons afterwards.
”This is also part of President Tinubu’s directive that the custodial centres be decongested from time to time.
”So far, we have released a total of 167 awaiting trial inmates; 49 in Lafia, 33 in Wamba, 16 in Nasarawa, 69 in both the old and modern centres in Keffi,” she said.
The CJ called on members of the public to accept and support the freed inmates as they reintegrate into the society.
She promised that the judiciary in the state under her watch would ensure speedy trials so as to decongest the custodial centres in the state
The CJ lamented that most of the custodial centres in the country were already overstretched, housing the number of inmates two times their capacities.
She also urged judges of lower courts to desist from sending accused persons to custodial centres unnecessarily, insisting that such practices contribute to the congestion of the centres.
“Always try out-of-court settlement, except it becomes extremely necessary that the accused be jailed,” she said.
Aliyu-Bashir, however, warned the released inmates to shun all forms of crimes, adding that maximum punishment would be meted on them once they are found wanting again.
She also warned the staff of the judiciary against indulging in corrupt practices, adding that anyone caught would be severely sanctioned.
Speaking, Mr Adamu Yahaya, the Controller of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), thanked the CJ and her team for the visit.
He noted that the visit had put a smile on the faces of the inmates and provided those who were released a second chance to be law-abiding and responsible members of the society.
The controller used the opportunity to appeal to families and friends of inmates to desist from supplying marijuana and other hard drugs to them while in custody.
“We have recorded cases where friends and family members of inmates supply them with marijuana and other illicit drugs either at the court premises or during visits at the custodial centres.
“We have arrested some of them and one has been tried and is currently serving his jail term at the Nasarawa centre,” he said.
The CJ was accompanied on the visit by the representatives of the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria and the National Human Right Commission.
Others included Police prosecutors, private legal practitioners, judges of higher and lower courts, as well as counsels from the Ministry of Justice, among others.