The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, on Friday ordered the heads of various courts to immediately speed up the trial of cases and decongestion of custodial centres in the country.
In a statement signed personally by him, he said there was a need to take the urgent measures in view of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as the United Nations had also called for the reduction of the population of prison inmates to aid physical distancing in such facilities.
According to him, records show that Nigeria has about 74,127 inmates at various custodial centres and 52,226 are Awaiting Trial Persons (ATPs).
Worried that most of the centres were housing inmates beyond their capacities and given that congested facilities were harmful to the health of the inmates, the CJN directed the heads of courts to urgently visit all custodial and correctional centres within their jurisdictions to identify and release deserving inmates, where that has not been done already.
Justice Muhammad recommended the conditional and unconditional release, as well as payment of fines of awaiting trial persons depending on the categories they fall within.
He also asked the justices to forward a report of their visits to him for compilation and onward transmission to the relevant authorities.
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