Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje has revealed that the state has freed 3,717 inmates in six years.
Gatekeepers News reports that the Governor of Kano State, North West Nigeria, Abdullahi Ganduje has revealed that his administration, within the past six years, freed 3,717 inmates in the state.
Ganduje expressed that this was in line with the policy of President Muhammadu Buhari that states should make deliberate efforts to decongest prisons in the country.
Ganduje spoke when members of the Presidential Committee on Correctional Centres Reform and Decongestion led by Justice Bello, paid him a courtesy call in his office.
The Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Abba Anwar made this known in a statement.
Ganduje was quoted as saying, “President Muhammadu Buhari thought it right when he called for the decongestion of our correctional centres, following the happenings in those centres. That, we should respect life and we should restore hope for the inmates.”
He added, “We adopted two major strategies in response to the call by President Buhari, for decongesting correctional centres.
“We constituted committees on the prerogative of mercy under which we released inmates twice in a year. All during Sallah festivities. Sallah-El-Fitr and Sallah-El-Kabir. So far, we have released 3,717 inmates from 2015 to date.
“We paid fines for them, which by their inability to pay, landed them in those centres. We also gave them transport fare shortly after regaining freedom. We recruited some of them into the state civil service.
“We are also keen on the administration of justice. Many at times are not all about releasing those inmates, but we still have a greater percentage of those in these centres as awaiting trial suspects.”
