The Adamawa State Chief Judge, Hon. Justice Nathan Musa, has discharged 209 and convicted 70 inmates awaiting trial within 3 days.
The CJ who is the Chairman Jail Delivery Committee also granted bail to 49 out of 712 inmates awaiting trial at the Jimeta and Yola town Custodial Centres of the Nigerian Correctional Service respectively.
Justice Nathan had on Monday and Tuesday discharged 119, convicted 49 summarily, granted bail to 31 and referred 1 to the Deputy Chief Registrar(DCR) Area Court, for review out of the total number of 410 inmates at Jimeta correctional centre.
While at Yola town correctional centre on Wednesday, the CJ discharged 90, convicted 21 and granted bail to 18 out of 302 inmates remanded for allegedly committing various offences.
Addressing the inmates shortly after the exercise at Yola correctional on today, Justice Nathan, said that the inmates were discharged based on the information the committee received from the Investigative Police Officers(IPOs) and from what they heard from the inmates.
He said some of the inmates have unnecessarily being remanded in prison for about 8, 10 to 11 years without trial, explaining that they have observed from records that some were remanded for civil matters instead of criminal matters.
He pointed out that some have been remanded for years without going to court, and that the committee was left with no option than to discharge them, saying that some of the case files either got missing at the ministry of justice or at ther police headquarters.
He added that it is better for 10 criminals to go scot free than 1 innocent person to be convicted because according to him, out of the 10 criminals allowed to go scot free, they may be arrested again and brought back.
Hon. Justice Nathan Musa, equally advised them not to go back to the society and commit offence again because if they do that, the hands of the law is very long and it will catch them and be properly prosecuted.
In his vote of thanks, the Deputy Comptroller Yola town correctional centre, DC Isa Nuru, appreciated the CJ and his committee for the successful exercise.
DC Nuru, told them that he had been incharge of several correctional centres but could not see a situation where a large number of inmates will be discharged, granted bail and convicted, and specifically applauded the CJ.
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