Paul Dumbi was among five inmates who the Delta State Chief Judge, Honourable Justice Tessy Diai discharged from the Kwale Custodial Centre of the Nigerian Correctional Service, yesterday.
The 40 years old man had been in custody since 2020 on allegations of armed robbery and arson even without the fact that there had been no information filed by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) or any witness deposition against him.
Discharging the Defendant, Justice Diai stated that she saw no justification for the inmate's continued stay in custody when the DPP had averred that all efforts to get witnesses to depose to an affidavit to enable them to render legal opinion had been futile.
Mr. Paul Dumbi expressed joy that his innocence has been proven even as he thanked God and the Chief Judge for facilitating his release.
The Chief Judge also released Aziakpono Igirigi, Joel Emmanuel (23), Ejita Osunde (23) and Destiny Goodluck (20). Despite that their cases had been struck out by various magistrate courts since 2020, they were still held in custody for no operant reasons.
Justice Diai who reviewed 304 warrants of inmates awaiting trial at the Kwale Custodial Center in continuation of prison tour across the state queried the rationale for keeping defendants in custody whose cases had been struck out by the court of competent jurisdiction.
She enjoined magistrates to hand off any matter which does not fall within their geographical jurisdiction except, they have a letter of approval from the Chief Registrar to assume jurisdiction, even as they were reminded to be conscious of the time limit in handling custody matters.
So far, the Chief Judge had released 15 inmates awaiting trial at Warri, Sapele, Kwale custodial centres and the Sapele Remand Home since October 18th when she embarked on a visit to custodial centres across the state.
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