BY AGNES NWORIE, ABAKALIK
The Chief Judge of Ebonyi State, Justice Elvis Ngene has intensified efforts to decongest the over populated Nigeria Correctional Center Custodial facilities in the state.
The CJ at the Ukpa Afikpo Custodial Center, Afikpo North Local Government Area, released 12 inmates during the recent jail delivery. Two out of the 12 inmates were out rightly discharged and acquitted while 10 were granted bail on various conditions.
In the Abakaliki center, 17 inmates were granted bail, which made it up to total of 29 persons freed by Justice Ngene during his first jail delivery exercise as CJ.
Justice Ngene said the aim of the special court session was in exercise of powers conferred on him by the 1999 Constitution as amended which was aimed at decongesting the custodial centres and noted that the exercise was not aimed at throwing open the gate of the facility for suspects to go but rather to provide succour to the inmates who deserved it.
“The exercise is to grant freedom to those who may have overstayed their sentence if they were tried and convicted to serve their terms. The exercise is also to grant bail to those who have been in custody over minor cases which are bailable offences and whose cases information have not been filed on. The jail delivery is not for those standing trial for capital offences or those whose cases are already before courts of competent jurisdictions,” Ngene explained
