Posted by By Sapa-AFP on
Nigeria will release 25 000 prisoners from its overcrowded jails, including people carrying the HI virus and other potentially deadly diseases, Justice Minister Bayo Ojo told journalists on Wednesday.
Nigeria will release 25 000 prisoners from its overcrowded jails, including people carrying the HI virus and other potentially deadly diseases, Justice Minister Bayo Ojo told journalists on Wednesday.
Elderly people and those who have diseases such as cancer or HIV and Aids will be released unconditionally, Ojo said after a cabinet meeting presided by President Olusegun Obasanjo.
About one in 20 Nigerians has been infected with the HI virus and there are fears that the proportion in the prison population may be much higher.
Other prisoners languishing on remand because legal authorities have lost track of the cases against them will also be released, the minister added.
'By the time the process is completed, we hope to have reduced the (number of) inmates to between 15 000 and 20 000," Ojo said.
Nigeria has a total of 40 444 prison inmates in 227 prisons across the country.
Sixty-five percent of inmates are on remand awaiting trial - some of them for many years - a situation which has been denounced by human rights groups and fuelled unrest in jails.
'Those who are incarcerated, whose terms would have expired if they had been convicted, will be released unconditionally. The ones who are to be tried will have their cases taken to court on a massive decongestion basis," Ojo said.
The government has approved the creation of six 'half-way houses" where prisoners will be educated or trained for up to two years to prepare them for a return to society, the minister said.
The government has approved the appointment of a chief prison inspector who will report directly to the president while prisons will get boards of governors responsible for living conditions, the minister said.