By Martin Cole-
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the chief judge to free prison inmates who have been awaiting trial for six years or more, in order to ease overcrowding as the novel coronavirus continues to spread, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
Buhari said 42 percent of Nigeria’s 74,000 prisoners were awaiting trial. He urged Chief Judge Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad to reduce that number “since physical distancing and self-isolation in such conditions are practically impossible”. Buhari called for inmates with no confirmed criminal cases against them, elderly prisoners and those who are terminally ill could be discharged.
“Most of these custodial centres are presently housing inmates beyond their capacities and the overcrowded facilities pose a potent threat to the health of the inmates and the public in general in view of the present circumstances, hence the need for urgent steps to bring the situation under control.”
Buhari is still privately mourning the death of one of his top advisers, Abba Kyari who succumbed t the deadly Covid-19 last weekend. A sociologist and lawyer, with degrees from the University of Warwick, the University of Cambridge and Harvard Business School, Kyari was a respected technocrat of high intellect. had tested positive to Covid-19, and had been receiving treatment before he died on Friday, April 17, 2020.
A fortnight ago, Buhari pardoned 2,600 prisoners aged 60 or older, terminally ill, or had less than six months left to serve of sentences of three years or more. Nigeria which currently has 782 confirmed cases and reported 25 deaths, is undergoing a lockdown in three major parts of the country, Lagos State, Ogun State, And Abuja, which is the capital of the country. Sources in Nigeria say the lockdown has led to heavy handedness in enforcing the rules by the Nigerian army who to date have killed 18 people over disputes of compliance.
The practicality of the lockdown has been particularly challenging for a number of Nigerians who live from hand to mouth and rely on their daily business engagements for subsistence. The Nigerian government says it has made provision for food supplies in the three parts of the country on lockdown, but those supplies are often competed for by desperate locals.
Sources in Nigeria told The Eye Of Media.Com that ”Nigeria could not possibly have the infrastrcture to have been adequately prepared for a killer virus like Covid-19”. Last Saturday, Armed bandits in Nigeria killed at least 47 people in attacks on several villages in the northwestern Nigerian state of Katsina after demanding food items and other relief materials delivered to the villagers as part of government’s relief efforts to help locals during the coronavirus lockdown.
Katsina is preseident Buhari’s hometown. The announcement by Buhari to release prisoners will be seen as positive move because of the pandemic, but the prisoners could pose a liability to the states they return to if they are hardened criminals.