From Wilson Okereke, Afikpo
Ebonyi State’s Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Dr Ben Odo, has disclosed that stakeholders in the justice sector in the South East,would work for Correctional Service Bill that will see to the removal of the Nigerian Correctional Service from the exclusive list to the concurrent list for each state to have State Correctional Service Law.
This is as the AGF and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), applauded the Chief Law Officers in the Zone over the summit aimed at promoting criminal justice administration in Nigeria.
He stated this at the ongoing “South East Special Policy Summit on Criminal Justice Reforms and Presentation of Model State Correctional Service Law,” in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital.
He explained that the major stakeholders gathered because of the need to amend the criminal justice system from the retributive justice system already in existence to restorative justice system that ought to be.
“If one visits the Correctional Centres, the person would discover that 90% of the inmates are first offenders and it is incumbent that we have State Custodial Centres.
“On this note, the South East Body of Attorneys are working towards domesticating the model correctional service in the zone and the bill would be presented to the respective governors which they would transmit to the Houses of Assembly for passage.
“Once it is signed into law, each state in the South East would have her Correctional Service Law, in Ebonyi, there would be Prison Farm where anyone who steals any farm produce would be sentenced and sent to farm as a punishment.
“Whatever the person makes from the farm would be shared with ratio 50% to be saved for the particular inmate which he would start-up his farm at home when he is released so that he would not commit another offence, 20% will be for the person’s feeding, while he is there, 20% will go into the government IGR and 10% will go into the account of Nigerian Correctional Centre,” Odo stated.