Justice Aisha Bashir-Aliyu, Chief Judge of Nasarawa State, has released 167 detainees from the state’s five detention centres.
Bashir-Aliyu pardoned the detainees during an official visit to the state’s detention facilities in Lafia, Wamba, Nasarawa, and Keffi.
Speaking at the conclusion of the visits on Thursday in Lafia, Justice Bashir-Aliyu stated that the tour of the facilities was in accordance with existing legislation.
She further added that the measure was in accordance with President Bola Tinubu’s instruction to decongest the country’s detention centres.
The chief judge stated that the legislation allows her to visit the detention institutions from time to time to evaluate cases of awaiting trial detainees to guarantee that justice is done.
She said:
“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 asked the people to welcome and assist the released convicts as they reintegrate into society.
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cc: Daily Post Ng
