Adamawa Jail Delivery Committee has declined pardon for about 35 convicted members of the dreaded "Shila" boys serving various jail terms at a particular correctional centre (names withheld) in the state.
The committee headed by the Chief Judge, Hon. Justice Nathan Musa, refused to discharge the convicted " shila" boys when the convicts appeared before it, insisting that they must serve their various prison terms as handed down by various courts.
NEWS PLATFORM gathered from 14 correctional centres that the number of the convicted "Shila" boys is far more than the aforementioned, and that those convicted are currently serving their jail terms at the various centres.
The activities of the radical cult groups, who had assumed the status of a full-fledged terrorist groups more especially within the state capital during the recent past administration, were curtailed between 2020 and 2021 when Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri's administration came on board in 2019.
The cult groups used to arm themselves with dangerous weapons such as cutlasses, daggers, knives, axes, sticks among others as they moved about in tricycles, dispossessing as well as inflicting grievious hurts on their unsuspecting victims.
Most of the members of the groups who were arrested by the police, vigilante groups and civil defense between 2020 and 2021, were arraigned before chief magistrates court II and I, criminal area courts I and II and upper area courts, and subsequently convicted as provided by the law.
They were mostly arraigned for the offences boredering theft, criminal conspiracy, extortion, criminal intimidation, assault, causing of grievious hurt, receiving stolen property, house breaking among others and convicted and sentenced between 3 to 14 years with option while others without option of fine.
But when the jail delivery committee stormed the correctional centre, several "shila" boys convicted by former judges of chief magistrates court II, Japhet Ibrahim Basani and Ibrahim Musa Ulenda, appeared before the committee and confessed to the offences they were jailed.
The membership of the committee refused to set them free, saying that they must be allowed to serve their terms, so that they will come out reformed and good citizens who will contribute positively to peace building and development of the state and country at large.
There is this fear that if some of the convicts are set free, they will likely regroup with some of the members who are yet to be arrested and prosecuted and cause more security challenges for the state than ever.
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