Justice Aisha Bashir, Chief Judge (CJ) of Nasarawa State on Wednesday assured on steps toward strengthening the justice administration system in the state.
Justice Bashir was speaking in Lafia during a stakeholders’ meeting organised by the Nasarawa State Ministry of Justice in collaboration with the Attorney General Alliance – Africa (AGA-Africa).
Present at the meeting included Judges, government counsels, members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), among others.
Newsmen report that the stakeholders gathered to brainstorm on the application of the newly signed Administration of Criminal Justice Law enacted to ensure quick dispensation of justice in the state.
Bashir, who is the first female Chief Judge of Nasarawa State, said the judiciary under her watch would ensure that justice is served to everybody, including inmates.
The CJ explained that her first assignment after confirmation was a visitation to the custodian facilities across the state where she released inmates with minor offences that were wrongfully detained.
She also disclosed that she had written a memo to Governor Abdullahi Sule, suggesting that over a hundred awaiting-trial inmates who had stayed for over 10 years in custodian facilities without conviction should be pardoned.
She noted that her decision to direct the release of inmates with minor offences and the recommendation for the pardon of those who stayed for over 10 years was aimed at decongesting correctional facilities and averting jailbreak.
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“We are not saying that they are not guilty, but we cannot prove their offences, as such, there is no point of keeping them in clusters, more so with the presence of COVID-19.
“Ten years in prison without hope of prosecution or trial; is it not better we let them go and sin no more,” the Chief Judge added.
Earlier, Abdulkarim Kana, the state’s Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Abdulkarim Kana, said the justice administration suffered setbacks due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and industrial strike by judicial staff.
Kana added that more Courts should be established to cater for the increasing numbers of crime in the state and reduce the workload on judges.
He explained that if judges had fewer cases to handle, the effect would go a long way in averting delay in the administration of justice in the state.
The Commissioner also said that at the moment, the ministry was handling over 200 criminal and civil cases spread across 153 courts in the state.
