JUST IN: CJN directs Chief Judges to decongest prisons, see major reasons

The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Ibrahim Muhammad has approved the decongestion of all prisons.

This is in order to maintain and take proper precautions to curtail the continuous spread of the COVID-19 disease.

The CJN asked Chief Judges at the federal and state levels with immediate effect take steps to decongest prisons across the country.

Justice Muhammad, in a circular issued on Friday, in his capacity as the Chairman of the National Judicial Council (NJC), directed the Chief Judges to ensure that criminal cases were speedily attended to, while they are also required to visit prisons within their jurisdictions.

The CJN, who regretted the large number of awaiting trial inmates in prisons, said: “it has become imperative for your lordships to embark on immediate visit to all custodial/correctional centres within your respective states to identify and release deserving inmates, where that has not been done already.”