Minister of Interior, Abdulrauf Aregbesola has hinted that his office will meet with state Governors to decide on the mass decongestion of prisons across the country by 30%. The minister stated this when he was a guest at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) forum in Abuja. Aregbesola stated that the interface was a necessary one considering that more than 90% of Nigerian inmates were being kept in custody for offenses that contravene state laws. More so, he added this as more than 70% of the total inmates numbering about 75,635 inmates were awaiting trials according to his record.
According to him, inmates whose offenses borders on federal offenses were less than 10% of the total inmate in our detention facility in the country.
Therefore, he noted that this has made it such that most of the inmates were kept under their state laws in their respective states across the country.
Aregbesola disclosed that decongesting 253 of the correctional centers across the country has become necessary as most of the inmates whose offenses are trivial do not deserve to be kept under detention.
He, therefore, call on all stakeholder in the system to work towards giving a facelift to a better administration of the Criminal Justice System that will work for all which will give us the desired number of inmates that do not keep the bulk part of offenders behind the bar.
In his statement, “I have written to the Nigerian Governors Forum to allow me to come and address them on how they can support the process of decongestion.
He added that “because the governors must buy into this system for us to do a massive decongestion, especially of Awaiting Trial Inmates.
He explained, “If we get the buy-in of state judicial authorities and the government of the states, we can pull out 30 percent of those who are there.”
According to the Minister, most of the awaiting trial inmates have stayed longer than even the punishment they deserved from the first instance, therefore even after conviction, they have already served the jail term if not more.
Giving an instance, he said, “If you look at a man that is caught for petty theft and you are trying him for three years, even if you convict him for that crime, how long will he stay?
“How long will that fellow stay, probably six months, but without trial, he will be there for three years.
He further noted that “Again, you arrested a boy under the bridge, there is no fixed crime and he is there forever and so on and so forth.
“So, we need the buying in and support from state governments.
“This is for them to critically know the situation and let them set up committees that will profile all those who are there.
He added that his plan is either to convict or release them or see if they have overstayed their punishment visa-vie his crime, they should be let go.
He, therefore, noted that his meeting with the Governors will help them review the faith of the inmates’ situation and relieve the system of overcrowding the facilities for trivial issues.NAN