The Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Kazeem Alogba, on Wednesday granted amnesty to 33 inmates of three custodial centres in the state.
The inmates were pardoned at an open court session presided over by the Chief Judge on the premises of the Lagos State Magistrates’ Court in Ogba.
Eight of the inmates were released from the Ikoyi Custodial Centre while 11 and 14 inmates were released from the Kirikiri Maximum and Medium Custodial Centres respectively.
Justice Alogba, while releasing the suspect, noted that the exercise was in line with the efforts by the Federal Government to decongest custodial centres as stipulated in Section 6 of the 1999 Constitution as amended and Chapter 40 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2005.
The CJ however noted that the prevalence of crimes in the society had been so horrendous for anybody to consider releasing suspects who had not been processed under the law, adding that the criteria used to release the inmates were not based on sentiments but were meticulously followed and scrutinised by the Justice Adenike Coker-led decongestion committee.
“Those released were found fit and suitable to be released back into the society,” he said.
Justice Alogba urged the freed inmates to be of good behaviour or harder punishment would be meted out on any of them caught committing crime again.
Earlier, in his welcome address, the state Controller of the NCS, Francis Adebisi, disclosed that 352 inmates are on death row at the Kirikiri Maximum Correctional Centre.
“The inmates on death row at the Maximum Correctional Centre are 352, and there are categories of inmates.
“We also have a total of 150 inmates serving life jail terms,” he said.
Adebisi noted that the population in the custodial centres has become a great challenge due to congestion.
He noted that the Ikoyi Custodial Centre built to accommodate 800 inmates currently has 2,665 inmates; while Kirikiri Maximum Centre has over 2,000 inmates as against the capacity of 1,056 and the Medium Centre has 3,117 as against 1,948 inmates.
Adebisi said the decision to release the deserving inmates would go a long way to improve the situation at the custodial centres across the state.
