Thirty-four awaiting-trial inmates in Ekiti State have been free as part of efforts to decongest the custodial centres.
The Ekiti State Chief Judge, Justice John Adeyeye, who gave the order, cautioned the freed inmates that punishment awaited anyone that committed a crime.
Twenty-two were released unconditionally, three were released on bail, and nine others were released based on the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions that they had no case to answer.
They were among the 508 cases reviewed during the visit of the CJ to the Nigerian Correctional Centre, Ado Ekiti.
Adeyeye encouraged the DPP, the police and other stakeholders in the criminal justice administration that “timely arraignment and assemblage of witnesses in court would help in decongesting our prisons.”
The CJ urged the magistrates, the police and other stakeholders to be abreast of the new laws of the land and stop the use of archaic law languages.
The Comptroller of the Correctional Centre, Joseph Ojo, represented by the Assistant Comptroller of the Centre, O. Atinaro, canvassed more for non-custodial sentences, such as community service, saying, “if the practice is fully utilised, our custodial centres would be less congested.”
