The Lagos State Police Command says it will continue to arrest suspected criminals and prepare them for prosecution even if the courts rejected their arraignment in the state.
The command’s spokesperson, Benjamin Hundeyin, a Superintendent of Police, stated this on Friday.
Hundeyin spoke in reaction to a story in the social media that some courts in Lagos State have rejected the arraignment of suspects from the police due to congestion at the Nigeria Correctional Service facilities in the state.
Hundeyin, who did not confirm if the courts were rejecting suspects brought by the police officers, however, said the force would live up to its constitutional responsibilities, which include arrests and prosecution of suspects.
He said: “We will continue to do our job, even when the courts do not accept suspects from us.
“When we take suspects to court and they are rejected, we will take them back to court again.
“We are going to continue to arrest all criminals, investigate them and those that have questions to answer will be charged to court.”
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Also reacting to the story, the image maker of Nigeria Correctional Service in Lagos State, Rotimi Oladokun, said they were not rejecting suspects, rather they were restricting the number of suspects admitted due to congestion.
Oladokun said: “We are not rejecting suspects.
“We are only restricting the number of intake due to congestion.
“We are meeting with the Ministry of Justice and other stakeholders to decongest the facilities.”
Unconfirmed sources had earlier told NAN that many courts in Lagos State were rejecting suspects brought by police, attributing it to congestion at the NCS facilities.
A police source told NAN that the organisation was also making plans to decongest its cells, while the Divisional Police Officers and Area Commanders were now responsible for the feeding of suspects kept in their cells.
The source, however, added that the police may likely stop arresting criminals if courts continued to reject suspects brought for arraignment.
NAN also gathered from investigations that the Correctional Centre facilities in Lagos State were actually congested.
Some NCS officials, who spoke with NAN anonymously, attributed the congestion to large number of awaiting inmates and those on death row that were yet to be executed.
The NCS officials also blamed the judiciary and police for bringing all manners of offenders to facilities, including those that alternative dispute resolution would have taken care of.
The source said: “The correctional facilities were full to capacity and even stretched to the extent that a hall, which is supposed to accommodate about 800 inmates were now over 3,000 inmates, to the extent that it has compromised the health of those in custody.
“There is no space in the Correctional Centres.
“It will only take divine intervention for the inmates to survive because they are filled beyond capacity and over-crowded.”
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