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How Buhari’s Administration Freed 12,000 Prisoners Across States

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President Muhammadu Buhari’s government said it freed no fewer than 12,000 prisoners from different correctional centres in Nigeria in the last six months.

According to the federal government, the inmates were granted pardons to decongest various prisons across the country.

The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), disclosed the development in Abuja yesterday while speaking during the 2023 budget defence session with Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (APC) Ekiti Central led Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters.

Malami explained that the government decongested the over-congested prisons across the country through policy actions aside from the Administration of Criminal Justice Act designed for expeditious dispensation of Justice.

Malami, who was responding to a question from Senator Ajibola Basiru (APC Osun Central), said, ”When this government came on board in 2015, the problem of prison congestions was at the front burner of national discourse, which made President Muhammadu Buhari set machinery in motion in different ways for required solution.

“One of such machinery set in motion was a Presidential Committee set up for Prison Decongestion, which liaised with other stakeholders in the Justice sector for a way out.”

He noted further that aside from the committee, President Buhari also addressed letters to the 36 States Governors and Chief Judges of the States for required visitations to prisons and exercise of the prerogative of mercies from time to time.

The AGF said: ”In one of such visitations made by the Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, about 500 inmates were granted the pardon in one day, the totality of which had led to the release of over 12, 000 inmates across the country within the last six years.

“Special attention was given to awaiting trial persons who constitute the bulk of the inmates across the various correctional centres in the country by taking Magistrates and Judges to the Centres for on-the-spot dispensation of Justice.”

He added: “The guideline on non–custodian sentences issued in 2020, gas also helped tremendously reduce inmates across the various correctional centres.

”The problem as far as this government is concerned is more or less a thing of the past now, as, in line with policy guidelines in place, no correctional centre today without required space will receive an inmate.”

In his remark, the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Bamidele, stressed that the 2023 budget estimates for the Federal Ministry of Justice and its agencies, as contained in the Appropriation Bill submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari, is N71.291billion, adding that the total sum is inclusive of allocations to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency ( NDLEA) and statutory transfer to the National Human Rights Commission.

Senator Bamidele, who hailed the President for increasing the budgetary provisions of the Council of Legal Education from N2.7billion it was in the 2022 fiscal year to N10.12billion proposed for the 2023 fiscal year, said that the increase will make the council put the various Law Schools in the proper shape.