By Agbaragu Timothy
Delta State Chief Judge, Honorable Justice Tessy Diai has reinstated that the Nigerian Correctional Service is under the exclusive list of the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended ) and therefore was the responsibility of the Federal Government.
That notwithstanding, according to her, the state government was doing all it could to ameliorate the challenges faced by custodial centres across the state within the limited available resources.
Justice Diai who released five inmates yesterday stated this at the Kwale Custodial Centre, Kwale in Ndokwa West Local Government Area in her continuation of tour of prisons across the state in the last quarter of the year.
Responding to an appeal by the officer in charge of the Centre on provision of vehicles, the Chief Judge stated that the issue has been brought to the attention of the State Government, pointing out that she was very sure the government was doing something to address the challenge.
She restated that the purpose of the visit to custodial centres was to make sure that every inmate was in lawful custody, and that none was kept more than the number of years he would have served if convicted, even as she sued for cooperation between officers of NCS and the courts to produce inmates early in court so that custody cases could be given priority for their early return to the centres.
Justice Diai who has visited Warri, Sapele and Kwale custodial centres so far in the ongoing jail delivery exercise, debunked unfounded media report that she had visited Kwale centre before yesterday.
“I Was surprised to read in one of the reports that I had visited Kwale prison and that the inmates were crying because none of them was released.
” I do not know where that information came from; at least all of us here know that this is the first time I am coming here in the course of this third quarter visit. So I do not know where the press got their reports from, ” she queried.
The number one Judicial Officer in the state charged journalists to verify and crosscheck fats before rushing to the press to avoid refraction of their professional ethics.
Earlier in a welcome address, the Deputy Controller of Corrections (DCC) Kwale Custodial Center, S. A. Anekwe implored the Chief Judge to use her good offices to influence the Delta State Government to provide logistics in performing their duties.
The DCC who revealed that the Custodial Centre built in1906 with capacity of 262 inmates asserted that it has current capacity of 323 inmates, even as he decried the situation where only one functional vehicle convey defendants to 32 courts spread over four local governments.
