COVID-19: 19 prisoners regain freedom in Taraba

Nineteen inmates awaiting trial at the Medium Security Custodial Centre in Jalingo, the Taraba state capital have regained their freedom.

This inmates we’re freed during a visit to the centre by the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Philibus Andetur on Tuesday.

While performing the exercise that gave rise to freeing the 19 inmates, Justice Andetur said his visit was in line with Governor Darius Ishaku’s directive of decongesting the prisons across the state aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19.

Apart from the 19 I, 10 others were also granted bail by Justice Andetur.

Earlier, the state Controller of Corrections, Mr. Stephen Gankov, expressed happiness over the chief judge’s visit to the centre.

He called on the chief judge to grant bail to inmates awaiting trial, explaining that his visit was part of measures to decongest the prison.

Sanwo-olu swears in 8 new judges

Daily Times reports that the visit was the chief judge’s first visit to the centre, having assumed office on June 14.

“It is a yearly routine that the chief judge visits the prisons at least once, but the purpose of this particular visit is to decongest the prisons because of the coronavirus pandemic,” a source said.

According to our correspondent, the number of persons awaiting trial without charges of committing any capital offence were 90, while number of convicts who have two years or less of their sentence to serve were three.

The chief judge has proposed decongesting prisons across the state with a view to containing the spread of the dreaded coronavirus.