The chief judge of Delta State, Justice Tessy Diai, has said that no Nigerian under her watch would stay in prison illegally without undergoing due process of trial in court.
She spoke while releasing two inmates, Abubakar Abdullahi and Ufuoma Victor, from the Sapele Custodial Centre at the commencement of the first quarter of the 2023 jail delivery exercise.
Abubakar Abdullahi had been in detention since 2020 for alleged conspiracy, kidnapping and armed robbery while Ufuoma Victor who was accused of the same offence had been in custody since 2022.
The chief judge said since the court had struck out the same case involving two other defendants charged along with Abubakar Abdullahi when he was still in Ogwashi-Uku custodial centre, there was no justification for his continued detention.
“In the light of this development there is no good reason for the continued detention of defendant in this facility. He is hereby discharged,” the chief judge announced.
In her remarks, Justice Diai who was accompanied by chairman of the Administration of Criminal Justice Committee, Justice G. B. Briki-Okolsi; Justice A. E. Okorodas and Justice A. A. Ighoverio, stated that the purpose of the jail delivery exercise was to ensure that everybody in custody was in legal custody and that no inmate awaiting trial stayed beyond the number of years he would have served had he been convicted.
The chief judge who also released 16 year old Master Isaac Frank from the Remand Home/Children Correctional Centre, Sapele, reviewed 208 inmates awaiting trial at the Sapele Correctional Centre while 11 at the Remand Home.
Narrating his ordeal, Mr. Abdullahi stated that he was innocent of the criminal charge preferred against him.
