In a bid to reduce prison congestion to the barest minimum, the comptroller of Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS), FCT command, Mr. Luka Dapaku has appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan and other relevant authorities in the country, to extend its amnesty programme to prisoners in the capital territory.
Dapaku who gave this charge while playing host to the wife of interior minister who led a team of delegates from international prisons chaplain organisation, said that the request, if granted, would perhaps be the boldest decision government would take towards reducing congestion in the FCT prisons.
The comptroller acknowledged that granting amnesty to inmates in the FCT Prisons was a constitutional issue, and stressed that granting amnesty similar to that enjoyed by inmates in neighbouring states would go a long way to restore hope to the inmates.
“In mates in the Federal Capital Territory are human beings and they have loved ones are in our midst; hence, the need for this issue to be addressed,” he said.
Lamenting that the burden of conveying inmates to courts for trial placed on their shoulder, was worrisome, the FCT boss, called on churches, civil society groups and concerned Nigerians to come to their aid.
Earlier, wife of the Minister of Interior, Mrs. Jane Abba Moro called for gradual review and consequent face out of the death penalty placed on Nigerian inmates from the constitution as a way of strengthening of Nigeria’s criminal justice system the minister’s wife stated this yesterday, while addressing inmates at the Kuje Maximum Prison in Abuja.
Acknowledging that there are multiple dimensions to the issue, she said, it is necessary for the National Assembly to begin to examine the possibility of abrogating the law.
Mrs. Moro who was a mission tagged ‘remembering the forgotten, noted that while it may not be completely phased out immediately, the death penalty can be evaluated in the interim with a view to applying it on those found guilty of murder.
Blaming the increasing number of inmates to the failure of the society to cater for its weak segment of the population, she called on individuals and other tiers of government to embark on massive job creation for the people.