Over 65 prisoners jailed for various reasons, including a nursing mother of a 2-month-old baby have been released from Warri Prisons in Okere. The Prisoners were among the over 1,077 prisoners awaiting trial.
1 man who stole a bottle of Benlyin with codeine cough syrup worth N1,200 had been detained for over 8 months, some had been in prison since 2012 without trials, amongst those released on bail was a pregnant woman.
The decision to release them was a move by the Justice Marshal Umukoro the Chief Judge Of Delta. The 65+ prisoners were among the total of 150 that were freed across the various prisons in Delta.
It was a move made to help in decongesting the prisons.
Umukoro attributed the high number of youths in the prisons to lack of good moral upbringing. He said that the inmates were freed on health ground, undue delay in trials and lack of diligent prosecution by the Police. Others were offences committed not known to law and no case to answer.
“I reviewed 3036 remand warrants and released a total number of 150 inmates from the Agbor, Ogwashi-Uku, Kwale, Sapele and Warri Prisons in an exercise that started on Nov. 14,” he said.
Most of the prisoners released were very grateful and thanked the CJ for the gesture and promised to be good citizens of the country.