The Comptroller, Oyo State Correctional Services, Abdulraheem Salami, has called on relevant stakeholders, including the government, to make concerted efforts towards the decongestion of correctional centres in the state and across the country.
Salami made the appeal, on Wednesday, at a workshop organised by the Law Hub Development and Advocacy Center, held at the Aare Afe Babalola Bar Centre, Iyaganku, Ibadan, with the theme: “Assessment of the Implementation of the Oyo State Administration of Criminal Justice Law.”
He urged judges and other stakeholders to come to the aid of the Correctional Services by ensuring swift dispensation of justice so prison cells could be decongested to avoid epidemics in the facilities, lamenting that the congestion is the same narrative at both the Agodi Prison in Ibadan and the Abolongo Prison in Oyo Town.
The comptroller disclosed that there were over 1,300 inmates at the Agodi facility that should hold 400 inmates and urged human rights groups, the state Chief Judge, the state Attorney General, and others to assist in decongesting correctional facilities in the state.
Salami noted that apart from inmates who had been awaiting trial for between two and five years that were in the vast majority, others that formed the bulk were those who had served their jail terms but were still being held for failing to pay restitution or compensation, disclosing that the service had written to the state Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice to help intervene in such cases.
For her part, the Chief Judge of Oyo State, Justice Iyabo Yerima, who was represented by Justice R.B Akintola and Hon. Justice O.M Olagunju, said the Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) was a welcome development in the state.
She identified the challenges of the ACJL to include the time frame given within which to conclude a criminal matter and the prescribed manner in which the police is required to record the statement of defendants, especially the one made in “A confessional statement.”
Delivering his paper on the role of the judiciary in the implementation of the ACJL, the immediate past Chief Judge in the state, Justice Munta Abimbola, noted that a Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee had been established to, among other things, ensure decongestion of prisons, but not to perform judicial functions, adding that lack of adequate funds had hampered the effective utilisation of the ACJL.
On prison decongestion, Abimbola noted that chief judges also face opposition in exercising their prerogative of mercy, as they are accused, by some prosecuting authorities, of releasing criminals into the society.
Speaking on the role of the Oyo State Ministry of Justice, the Director, Public Prosecution (DPP) of the ministry, Mr S.O. Adeoye, also agreed that prisons were indeed congested and identified challenges in implementing the ACJL to include lack of adequate personnel to timeously prosecute cases and poor funding.
He, therefore, recommended the establishment of special courts to try only criminal cases, increased funding to deal with logistics challenges, strengthening of the bail system, and recruitment of more personnel in the ministry.
For her part, the OC Legal, Funke Fawole, who spoke on the role of the Nigeria Police Force, called for the amendment of the ACJL, which she said favoured defendants more than prosecutors and even the state, such that it is more restorative than retributive.
In her contribution, the Chairman, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ibadan Branch, Mrs Folasade Aladeniyi, charged all stakeholders in the justice process to play their roles judiciously for the nation’s justice system to be better.
Mr Joshua Dada, who represented the Executive Director, Law Hub Development and Advocacy Center, Osita Chukwuma, called for full implementation of the ACJL in Oyo State.
Noting that Oyo State was faring well in implementing the ACJL, he assured that the centre was committed to providing technical support to update the law and ensure better implementation of the ACJL.
