legal practitioner, Edward Omaga, has called on the federal government to decongest correctional centres across the country in order to prevent jailbreaks.
“Decongesting the correction centres is what we should be doing now. We believe that you solve a problem before it arrives by preventing it,” Mr Omaga, principal partner and chairman board of trustees in a legal consulting firm, made the call in Abuja.
“For instance, for somebody who has spent five years awaiting trial for stealing a bicycle, how do you reconcile that? And another politician is released from prison after three months, either because of no conviction, or no case to substantiate. These are because of plea bargain.
“The young man who is in prison for five years because he stole a motorbike, or bicycle is so angry that he could do anything, even in the prison. And that is why you hear of jailbreaks.
“But if a man goes into prison awaiting trial, and in the next three months, his case is decided he’s either convicted or released to go free. There won’t be a need to worry.
He also recommended adopting alternative dispute resolution to settle conflicts as a way to reduce the caseload for judges to afford them time to focus on serious cases.
“How do we make society a better place for people to live in? We take different types of cases, either for human rights sake, or corruption just to make sure that the country is on the pedestal of growth, stability and development, we handle that free of charge,” he said.
(NAN)
