TheCable

During a tour of detention facilities at the Kirikiri Medium and Maximum Prisons in Lagos, Justice Ayotunde Phillips, chief judge of Lagos State, pardoned 75 inmates awaiting trial.

While three of the inmates were released at the maximum facility, 71 were set free at the medium prison, and one at the female prison.

Admonishing them to “go and sin no more”, the chief judge, who will be retiring on July 25, said the gesture was aimed at reducing congestion at the prisons and to also release some inmates who had been awaiting trial for many years.

She expressed regrets that despite the efforts of her administration to address prison congestion, the issue “unfortunately” still remains a big challenge.

“I really don’t know what more I could have done as a person to reduce the number of awaiting-trial inmates,” she said.

“They form the bulk of the number of persons in our prisons today and we need to go back to the drawing board to see how we can reduce it.”

Phillips said the various reforms in the criminal justice system, particularly the introduction of the bail guidelines, were all geared towards achieving this objective.

She said the judiciary would partner the Lagos State government to ameliorate the plight of inmates, especially those at the female prison.

In his address, DCP Olumide Tinuoye, Deputy Controller, Maximum Security Prison, revealed that there are 366 convicts and 389 inmates awaiting trial at the facility.

Tinuoye commended the jail-delivery exercise and urged the freed inmates not to return to criminal ways.

Speaking to journalists, one of the released inmates from the female prison, Miss Maddy Freedom, commended the chief judge for setting her free.

The 27-year old woman, who was incarcerated for over two years over alleged jewelry theft, urged Nigerian youths to shun criminal acts that could send them to jail.