Comptroller of Correctional Service Centre in Kwara State, Mr Aliu Baba-Usman, has recommended amnesty for inmates as a way of decongesting the correctional centres.
The comptroller, while speaking on Thursday in Ilorin, said it was the prerogative responsibility of the executive governor to grant amnesty to inmates with special conditions. He said such gesture would better the fortune of many of them and make them better persons in society. Baba-Usman said the custodian centres particularly in Ilorin, the state capital, are over-populated. “Oke-Kura that was built for 121 inmates now has the population of 477 and Mandala which was constructed for 160 inmates now accommodates 281.”
He added that the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Saidu Kawu, based on exclusive right, has promised to look into giving amnesty to unconvicted inmates at the correctional centres. He explained the issues of decongestion at the correctional centre has to do with so many factors with Police, court and prosecution, adding that there is a chain of transformation and if one side is lacking it will affect the other.
He, therefore, urged members of the public to show love to those in custody by giving them gifts that could better their lives particularly in this month of Ramadan. However, he called on the state government to create a branch of the vocational centre at the Ajase-Ipo correctional centre for the inmates to benefit and learn skills of their choices before the completion of their jail terms.
On the change of command name from Nigeria Prison Command to Nigeria Correctional Service Centre, the comptroller said it followed the enactment of the new law that became effective Dec. 31, 2019. According to him, when the law was enacted it gave room for many innovations and it took cognizance of some of the areas that have not been covered in the old Act.
“In totality, the prison activities or correctional activities have not been thrown away, the Act only corrected some areas that have not been covered and there is an enlargement of the scope and this does not exist in Nigeria from inception. The management deemed it feet that this is what is going on around the whole world; so we have to move with time because the Act is not new in advanced countries.”
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