Niger to grant prisoners amnesty, decongest prisons
Saka Bolaji – Minna
The Niger state government has started plans to decongest prisons by granting amnesty to prisoners who have been of good behaviour.
The government through the Secretary, Advisory Council on the Prerogative of Mercy and Permanent Secretary, Political, Alhaji Baba Wachiko Yahaya said the council will recommend to Governor Abubakar Sani-Bello to apply leniency on inmates who have been of good behaviour.
The team visited the Minna Old Prison and Minna Medium Prison, Tunga where prisoners scheduled for amnesty were presented to the council to be granted leniency and pardon by the governor.
Wachiko said that “the state government is ready to grant amnesty to well behaved inmates and those who have certain challenges especially on health grounds.
We discovered that most of the inmates are youth and they either have less than six months or could not pay their fine to regain their freedom.”
He added that the exercise would help the state government have a comprehensive detail of the number of inmates across the state and those that can be co-opted and integrated back into the society.
