197 drugs convicts yet to serve terms —Reps

Speaker, House of Reps, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal

House of Representatives on Thursday revisited the cases of the 197 convicted drug traffickers, who were believed not to have served their jail terms in prison.

Rather than serve their jail terms, the high-profile convicts reportedly walked away to the comfort of their homes or were simply allowed to escape.

A motion sponsored by a member, Mr. Hassan Saleh, recalled that the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency successfully prosecuted the traffickers between 2005 and 2006, leading to their conviction.

However, he told the House that none of the 197 suspects served their jail term in prison.

Saleh added that the report of  a committee, set up by the Federal Government in 2006 to look into the operations of the NDLEA, also reflected the fact that the convicts did not serve their jail terms.

The committee was headed by retired Justice Gilbert Obayan.

Part of the motion read, “It has been alleged that about 197 persons convicted for drug trafficking-related offences are said not to be serving their prison terms in the prisons and this allegation was substantiated in the report of a committee set up by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, which was headed by Justice Gilbert Obayan (retd) in 2006.

“According to the committee’s report, out of 143 drug convicts for the year 2006, 96 of them were never brought to the prison, while another set of 101 drug convicts for the year 2005 were also not taken to the prison, bringing the total to 197.

“The House is worried that persons who were alleged to have been lawfully prosecuted by the NDLEA and convicted by a court of law have been unlawfully released from prison thereby undermining the nation’s criminal justice system.

“The House is disturbed that it has become a common practice for many of our high-profile detainees and convicts to pretend that they are ill so that they can be taken to hospitals outside the prisons, whereas in most cases, they are in the comfort of their homes or in tastefully furnished hospital wards.

“The House is concerned that the Ministry of Justice has failed, neglected and refused to implement the findings of the Justice Gilbert Obayan’s committee report on this serious infraction on our criminal justice system.”

Lawmakers, after debating the motion, mandated the Joint Committee on Justice, Interior, Drug/Narcotics and Financial crimes to “determine the statistics of all those prosecuted and convicted by the NDLEA from its inception to date and determine where they served their terms”.

It also asked the committee to find out the circumstances leading to the release or disappearance of the 197 detainees from prisons “and all those who were behind this unlawful and shameful, act as contained in the Justice Obayan committee report and recommend appropriate sanction for them.”

The motion was unanimously endorsed by the House.

PUNCH