Out of the 30, comprising only two
females, 25 were released unconditionally and on the grounds that they were
discovered to have stayed longer than expected in custody through their trial
process.
Three were released on bail to
continue their trials, one was released on legal advice from the Directorate of
Public Prosecution (DPP) and another one, a juvenile, was released to be taken
to remand home.
The release, according, to the CJ,
was in exercise of his powers to visit the prison to see how proceedings and
trial of inmates have been going and also help to decongest the prison.
Justice Abimbola said: “We have been
able to consider 26 cases worthy of release. 25 inmates were released
unconditionally and on the grounds that they have stayed so long through the
trial process. One inmate was released on legal advice by the DPP. Another
inmate was released to be taken to remand home because he is a juvenile/child
offender, so we do not want him to be merged together with the adult offenders.
Three were released on bail to continue their case in court. One was released
and the NDLEA should be on his track. That is how far we can go, but because of
the number of enormous cases before us, we agreed to come back in two weeks.”
The Controller of Prisons, Oyo State
Command, Akinrujomu Tosin, appreciated the CJ for, “coming to perform one of
his constitutional duties and decongesting the facility by facilitating speedy
hearings and justice for cases stalled or that are taking too long in the court
of law.”
He said that the prisons had been
having challenges with the facilities as a result of overstretching of the
facilities, the controller said the facility presently have 1,115 inmates with
945 awaiting trials (male) and 15 females awaiting trials as against the 390 it
was built to accommodate since the colonial era.
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