95 prison inmates freed in Kaduna

Following Thursday’s visit by the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, to the Kaduna Convict Prisons, the state Chief Judge, Justice Tanimu Zailani has released 95 awaiting trial inmates in the state.

He, however, charged the freed inmates to go and sin no more.

El-Rufai had during the visit described as injustice, the practice of keeping awaiting trial inmates on minor offences in the prison.

The governor said, “We are particularly interested in improving the state of training and vocational facilities within the prisons and expanding that to outside the prison.

“We believe acquisition of skills is very important, not only to create job but also to reduce the rate of crime.

“It is injustice for a person to be kept for a long time in the prison on a minor offence and awaiting trial.” Justice Zailani said the gesture was aimed at decongesting the prisons which he said had been crowded beyond its capacity.

The Kaduna Convict Prison established in 1915, with a capacity to house only 547 inmates has been over-stretched.However, it currently accommodates over 1,000 inmates out of which 114 are condemned criminals. Most of the freed inmates had stayed between five to nine five years in detention without convictio