Ihuaku Ogu
Gov.Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers has called for a speedy investigation of suspects arrested for crime that were going through legal trails to avoid unduly awaiting trial list.
Fubara gave the advise on during a visit of the House of Representatives Committee on Reformatory Institutions, led by the Chairman, Mr Chinedu Ogah, to his office in Port Harcourt on Monday.
Fubara emphasized on the need for the Nigeria Police Force and the Judiciary to rise up to the challenge of ensuring that their institutions function effectively achieving desired successes of dispensing justice and decongesting correctional centres.
Fubara insisted that seedy approach would contribute largely to solving the incidences of overcrowded correctional centres with awaiting trial inmates across the country, and the financial burden required for the upkeep of the inmates.
“I know that the state government from time to time, through the Chief Judge, had visited the correctional centres for evaluation, and I have seen a few letters he has written about what he saw on his visit, and having confirmed, and accessed a few of the inmates, he had granted them either bail or pardon,”Fubara said.
Fubara mentioned delay in trial as one of the issues that may be causes overcrowding of the Correctional Centres, might be due to delay in the trial of their cases.
He also mentioned suspects wrongfully arrested and the long process of investigation which takes two, three, four years or more.
“We need to make sure that our institutions are functioning effectively, if they are functioning effectively, I strongly believe that most of these issues of over-crowding of the correctional centres won’t be there.”
“We will continue to encourage our system to do it better. Maybe, if we had made these complaints earlier, some of the corrections would have been done.
“Now that we are saying it, I believe they are hearing, and they will expedite action to make sure that some of these things are put to check,”Fubara said.
The Governor said his administration would be focused and continue to adress the needs of Rivers people, noting the importance of properly integrating ex-convicts into the society.
“It is not just to say we need to reintegrate them. We also need to do the proper evaluation to make sure that we are not endangering our people,”he stated.
Fubara commended the Federal Government on building new facilities to house inmates and the plan to relocate correctional centres in the city centre, saying that it would be worthy of support.
Fubara explained stated that the state government under his leadership had continued to support the Controller of the Port Harcourt Correctional Centre with monthly subvention to assist in the day-to-day running of his office, as well as other assistance.
In a speech, Mr Chinedu Ogah, the leader of the delegation and Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Reformatory Institutions,explained that they were in Rivers to oversight all the correctional institutions domiciled in the state.
Ogah noted the that the correctional service had suffered gross neglect in the aspect of security.
He listed four correctional service centres in Rivers to include Port Harcourt, Ahoada, Degema and the Farm Settlement; with each housing about 4,000 inmates, adding that 91 percent of such inmates were awaiting trial.
Ogah said that most of these inmates were not yet convicted, and some of them were not being justified: what the case was, the major issue, the negligence aspect of the security on how to reintegrate, reform, and bring them back into the society with indulge in crime.
He commended Gov. Fubara for reducing crime rate in the state by empowering the youths in all the local governments economically, and giving them a sense of belonging.
Ogah further said that Rivers was one of the places where the construction of 3,000-capacity centres are ongoing in Bori, and this construction has gotten up to 60 percent.
Ogah solicited the support of the state government to make the initiative of the federal government succeed for the peace and development of Rivers state and Nigeria at large.
