Nursing mother, 64 others regain freedom in Warri prison

No fewer than 65 inmates, including a nursing mother of two-month old baby in Okere Prisons in Warri, Delta State,on Tuesday regained their freedom.
The inmates were among the total of 150 that were freed by the Chief Judge of Delta, Justice Marshal Umukoro across the various prisons in Delta.
Justice Umukoro had embarked on his quarterly prisons tour on November 14 and visited the Agbor, Ogwashi-Uku, Kwale, Sapele and Warri Prisons with a view to decongesting them.
The 65 inmates were among the over 1,077 awaiting trial in the Okere 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 offence committed not known to law and no case to answer, based on the legal advice from the Attorney-General of the state, through the Director of Public Prosecutions.
He said the majority of the inmates fell within the age bracket 17 and 27 years, noting that it showed a gross dysfunction in the family system in the country.
The CJ said that the visitation was in pursuant to the provision of the Criminal Justice (Release from Custody (Special Provision) Act Cap, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 to exemplify the passionate desire of the Chief Judge to decongest the Prisons.
Umukoro said: “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 November 14.”
Amongst those released on bail was a pregnant woman while a man who was remanded for over eight months for stealing a bottle of Benlyin cough syrup worth N1,200 was also set free.
Some of the inmates, who were elated, said they had been in prison since 2012 without trials.
They, however, thanked the CJ for the gesture and promised to be good citizens of the country.