Follow Us on Google
From Wilson Okereke, Afikpo
Wife of Ebonyi State Governor, Mrs. Mary-Maudlin Nwifuru, yesterday, freed 53 inmates from the Abakaliki Correction Centre.
She also gave the freed inmates N20,000 cash as transportation fare to their various homes.
Mrs. Nwifuru said the gesture was as a result of the pathetic condition of the inmates and congestion of the correction centre. The correction centre was accommodating 1,466 inmates against 387 inmates it was meant to accommodate.
Mrs. Nwifuru explained that she visited the centre in October and discovered that some of the inmates who were convicted and given the option of fines before they would be released, couldn’t pay the fines because they were unable to get the fines.
“My modest project, Better Health for Rural Women, Children and Internally Displaced Persons(BERWO), provides succour for the less privileged, giving them assured hope through our numerous programmes.
“On October 13, 2023, I visited this Correction Centre. In the course of my intervention with the authorities of the correctional centre and the inmates, my attention was drawn to the fact they were some of the inmates who were already convicted, but given the option to pay fine and be released from custody. Unfortunately, those inmates could not pay the said fines and were consequently held in custody.
“My attention was also drawn to another category of inmates. These were inmates granted bail with condition, but are yet to and unable to perfect their bail condition.
“Moved by the condition of these inmates and the sense of duty as the mother of this state and worsened by overcrowding of this centre, I brought it to the knowledge of my husband, the father of the state for his esteemed intervention, he didn’t hesitate one date in giving his fatherly support by undertaking to pay the court fines and requirement of the perfection of the bail and condition, so as to secure the release of the inmates from the custodial centre,” she stated.
The First Lady enjoined the freed inmates to ensure that they don’t return to the centre by indulging in the crimes that brought them to the centre before their freedom.
The State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Ben Odoh, who described the release of the inmates by Mrs. Nwifuru as timely, disclosed that the correction centre is currently carrying more than its capacity.
“The Abakaliki correction centre that you are looking at is built to accommodate 387 inmates. As of last Friday, this centre accommodates 1, 466 inmates. The Comptroller wrote to me that they will not accept anybody in the centre because they don’t have anywhere to keep them.
“I came there and entered one of the cells. I took pains to count the number of inmates in one cell and there were 126 people in one room using one toilet. Our situation in the criminal justice system is in a dilapidated state and is gasping for help.
“Mummy has taken an action that is challenging all of us to make sure that we put all our hands on deck to see how we can remedy the worsening state of our criminal justice system in Ebonyi and, by extension, Nigeria,” he stated.
