In compliance with President Bola Tinubu’s order to decongest custodial centers in the country, the Chief Judge of Nasarawa State, Justice Aisha Bashir-Aliyu, has freed 167 inmates across the five custodial centers in the state.
The Chief Judge pardoned the inmates during an official visit to the custodial centres in Lafia, Wamba, Nasarawa and Keffi local government areas of the state.
Justice Bashir-Aliyu rounding off a tour of Correctional facilities in Lafia on Thursday said the visit was in line with the extant laws.
She explained that the law empowers Chief Judge to go aro the custodial facilities from time to time to review cases of awaiting trial inmates to ensure that justice was served.
“The exercise is aimed at seeing to the health and well-being of the inmates, to free those wrongly incarcerated or whose jail terms are more than the punishment they were charged for.
“The prisons are not places meant to punish the inmates, but to reform them and make them better persons afterward.
“So far, we have released a total of 167 awaiting trial inmates; 49 in Lafia, 33 in Wamba, 16 in Nasarawa, and centers69 in both the old and modern centres in Keffi.
“This is also part of President Tinubu’s directive that the custodial centres be decongested from time to time,” she said.
The Chief Judge urged members of the public to accept and support the freed inmates as they reintegrate into society.
