Seventy of those pardoned
are in Kuje Custodial Centre in Abuja, said Interior Minister Rauf Aregbesola.
President Muhammadu Buhari
has pardoned 2,600 prisoners nationwide.
They were made up of 41
Federal inmates and 29 FCT inmates.
Five former inmates were
also granted presidential pardon.
The pardon does not apply
to inmates sentenced for violent extreme offences such as terrorism,
kidnapping, armed banditry, rape, human trafficking, culpable homicide and so
on.
The Governors of the 36
states under whose jurisdiction most of the inmates are incarcerated will
complete the exercise in line with the federal principle.
“After the release of the
first phase, the amnesty committee will continue to meet regularly to consider
those who deserve the benefit,” he said.
Minister of Justice, Mr
Abubakar Malami, said that the UN has advised Member States to reduce the
number of inmates in custodial centres in view of the social distancing policy
aimed at containing the spread of Coronavirus.
He described the launch of
the 2020 presidential pardon as historic, adding that the process of selecting
beneficiaries started in 2018.
He warned the beneficiaries
to desist from crimes, urging the community to receive them without
stigmatisation.
He lamented that 70 per
cent of inmates in Nigeria’s Correctional Centres were awaiting trial.
The Controller-General of
NCoS, Mr Ja’afaru Ahmed, said that so far the service had not recorded any case
of Covid-19.
He said that the exercise
would go a long way in reducing the number of inmates in the service
nationwide.
As at 6 April 2020, there
are 73,756 inmates in Nigerian Custodial Centres.
Out of the number, 21,773
are convicts, while 51,983 are Awaiting Trial persons.
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