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President Muhammadu Buhari has pardoned 2,600 inmates of correctional centres nationwide.
Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbeshola, who made the disclosure in Abuja, said 70 of the inmates were from the Kuje maximum custodial centre. The tally includes 41 federal prisoners and 29 Federal Capital Territory (FCT) inmates.
He said 2,600 prisoners had been give the presidential reprieve across the federation.
Earlier, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), while kicking off the 2020 presidential pardon and clemency to convicts and inmates at the facility, had stated that the exercise was part of measures by the Federal Government to decongest the prisons in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He explained that the entire process began in August 2018 when the Presidential Advisory Committee on Prerogative of Mercy (PACPM) was inaugurated to advise the Nigerian leader on pardoning deserving inmates and ex-convicts in line with Section 175 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
To arrive at the list, the minister said the committee adopted interviews, observations, consultations and relevant documents from every correctional centre in the country.
Owing to the urgency of the time, Malami added that President Muhammadu Buhari had requested appropriate authorities to visit all facilities in the states to identify and release deserving inmates.
The minister encouraged payment of fines for convicts of lesser offences, warning beneficiaries to desist henceforth from crimes.
The AGF also urged communities to reintegrate the pardoned with love to make them more useful to the society.
He stressed the need to identify new ways of reducing the number of inmates in the custodial centres to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.
But Aregbesola, who represented the president at the event, said the welfare of the citizens remained a top priority of government, including the decongestion of the prisons.
He harped on reorientation from the punitive concept of imprisonment to correction and reformation where prisoners would be given opportunity to reflect, regret, repent, be transformed, be renewed and energised to begin a new and productive life as honourable and law-abiding members of the society.
The former Osun State governor regretted that the 250 facilities that currently house over 74,000 inmates nationwide was grossly inadequate, promising that the Buhari administration would address the challenge.
The Nigerian Correctional Service, he added, was making serious efforts to prevent the introduction of the virus in these centres through improved hygiene, suspension of social visits and extra-screening of new inmates, among others.
Also given state pardon are the late Prof Ambrose Ali; Chief Anthony Enahoro; Lt.-Col. Moses Effiong (rtd); Major E.J. Olanrewaju and Ajayi Olusola Babalola.
