The Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS) through its spokesman, Francis Enobore has said that putting handcuffs on Chief Olisa Metuh, the National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party was at the discretion of the prison officer who supervised the court appearance of Chief Olisa Metuh.
Chief Olisa Metuh had appeared for his trial at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday in handcuffs and following the comments made by the Peoples Democratic Party that handcuffing Metuh is a plot by the All Progressive Congress (APC) to subdue it being a major opposition party, the NPS spokesperson had further said that the officer in charge of the escort which saw Metuh to the court was at liberty to decide if the inmate should be cuffed base on security situation, environment and intelligence report made available to the officer.
Francis Enobore further explained that handcuffing Metuh was not to maltreat him, going on to say that it was standard procedure which prison wardens could employ based on the situations surrounding escorts.
In the Telephone interview with Punch Correspondent, the spokesman said “If you suspect that the atmosphere, security-wise, may not be conducive to the inmates in your custody, you can use handcuffs; to avoid a situation where you have to start telling stories, you use your discretion to study the environment and take appropriate measures to ensure the safety of the inmates in your custody.
“Remember that we not only try to secure the inmate from escaping, we equally provide protection for the inmate. The officer in-charge must ensure that the life of the inmate is not jeopardised. It is the officer in-charge of the escort that studies the security environment and takes the decision to use handcuffs.”