DELTA STATE CHIEF JUDGE GRANTS TWO INMATES FREEDOM AT SAPELE CUSTODIAL CENTRE. | AGBARAGU TIMOTHY.

The State Chief Judge, Honourable Justice Tessy Diai, has released two inmates, Abubakar Abdullahi and Ufuoma Victor, from the Sapele Custodial Centre as she commenced the first quarter of the 2023 jail delivery exercise yesterday. 

Abubakar Abdullahi had been in a detention facility since 2020 for the alleged offence of conspiracy, kidnapping, and armed robbery while Ufuoma Victor who was allegedly accused of the same offence had been in custody since 2022.

According to the Chief Judge, the court has struck out the same case involving two other defendants charged along with Abubakar Abdullahi when he was still in Ogwashi-Uku Custodial Centre, noting that there was no justification for his continued detention.

"In the light of this development, there is no good reason for the continued detention of the defendant in this facility. He is hereby discharged," she pronounced.

Narrating his ordeal, Mr. Abdullahi who expressed joy over his release stated he was innocent of the criminal charge preferred against him.

According to him, he went to the market to buy a cell mobile phone, and it was thereafter somebody came and started dragging the phone with him. And before he knew what was happening, he was arrested and taken to court. 

He thanked the Chief Judge for releasing him even as he prayed for her long life and prosperity.

In her opening remark, Justice Diai, who was accompanied by the chairman of the Administration of Criminal Justice Committee, Justice G. B. Briki-Okolsi; Justice A. E. Okorodas, and Justice A. A. Ighoverio, stated that the purpose of the jail delivery exercise was to ensure that everybody in custody was in legal custody and that no inmate awaiting trial has stayed beyond the number of years he would have served had he been convicted.

The Chief Judge who also released one Master Isaac Frank, 16 years, from Remand Home/Children Correctional Centre, Sapele, reviewed 208 inmates awaiting trial at the Sapele Correctional Centre while 11 were at the Remand Home.