The Federal Government has granted amnesty to no fewer than two
thousand six hundred inmates as part of measures to decongest prison
facilities in the country amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Minister of Interior, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, disclosed this at a
press conference at the headquarters of the Nigerian Correctional
Service, in Abuja.
He said that at least seventy inmates, who are serving various terms
for crimes against the society, would be processed and released later
today.
Mr. Aregbesola said the affected inmates include inmates that are
sixty years and above; those suffering from ill-health likely to
terminate in death; convicts serving three years and above and have
less than six months to serve; inmates with mental issues and inmates
with an option of fine not exceeding fifty thousand naira.
He said that in a symbolic gesture of the amnesty given to the two
thousand six hundred inmates across Nigeria, forty- one Federal
inmates and twenty-nine FCT inmates making a total of seventy inmates
who met the above criteria will be released today from the Kuje
Custodial Centre in Abuja.
He noted that the amnesty will not apply to inmates sentenced for
violent extreme offences such as terrorism, kidnapping, armed
banditry, rape, human trafficking, culpable homicide and so on.
Mr. Aregbesola added that the Governors of the thirty-six states under
whose jurisdiction most of the inmates were incarcerated will complete
the exercise in line with the federal principle.
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