Lagos Chief Justice "Justice Ayotunde Phillips" Frees 233 Kirikiri Prison Inmates

AS part of activities to mark the new legal year, the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Ayotunde Philips, on Tuesday freed 233 inmate from both maximum and medium security prison, Kirikiri. At maximum section, Justice Philips, who exercised the power conferred on her by the virtue of Section 1(1) of the Criminal Justice Act Cap A40 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2007, told the inmates to “go and sin no more.”

While speaking, the CJ said “the freed inmates fall within the category of petty offenders who ordinarily have spent more than the number of years they could have spent if were found guilty of the offence they were accused of. “It is better for 10 guilty persons to be freed than one innocent person to suffer injustice.” She further noted that none of the released inmates had spent less than 12 years in detention.

She added that the exercise would henceforth be a regular one and no one should be spared in decongesting the prison and adequately reform them. In his welcome address, the Comptroller of Maximum Prison, DCP, Oladele Tinuoye, stated that the inmates had accepted their fate even as he sought compensation for the freed men. He also urged officials of the committee for the Prerogative of Mercy to occasionally visit the prison and not depend on papers submitted to it by prison officials.
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