The Rivers State Chief Judge, Justice Simeon Chibuzor Amadi, has given pardons to 53 inmates at the Port Harcourt Maximum Correctional Centre who are on trial for various offences.
The activity is part of the actions planned to start off the state’s fiscal year 2023/2024, as well as an effort to decongest the Maximum Correctional Centre in Port Harcourt.
According to Justice Amadi, the exercise is also in accordance with the provision of Section 34 Sub-section 1 of Rivers State’s Criminal Justice Law and the special provision act of the Laws of the Federation, which empowers the Chief Judge to visit the correctional centre to determine the number of inmates in custody, their length of stay, and those deserving of a pardon.
Justice Amadi also used the opportunity to call on the police to be thorough in their investigations before charging a suspect to court saying, “Somebody will steal, and the police will charge them for armed robbery instead of stealing. Sometimes when people recover their stolen property, they are not ready to continue the matter in court”.
Speaking further, he advised the released inmates to be of good conduct.
“I came here for an exercise just to make you better citizens. No one wants you to die, you have learnt something here. Please, I beg you all to leave evil and cultism. As you go back to the village let the change be seen in you, don’t go back to eat your vomit, go back and find something to do: farm, fish or learn hand work.
“Think for yourself, if you are struggling, people will help you when they see ingenuity in you. Change because you may not have a second chance but if not, it might not be business as usual.”
In his remarks, the Comptroller of the State Correctional Service, Felix Lawrence commended the criminal justice system Administration in the State for effectively decongesting the Port-Harcourt Maximum correctional service, revealing that at his assumption of office in June, he met over 4,000 inmates, but the number has dropped by a thousand.
The inmates granted pardon are those who have been in the correction centre for five and nine years respectively and standing trial as awaiting trial inmates who had no information filed against them by the Department of Public Prosecution in the High Court.