The Ebonyi Chief Judge, Justice Anselm Nwaigwe, on Monday, discharged one inmate in a remand home during a jail delivery in the state.
Nwaigwe also granted bail to 10 inmates and remanded 13 others at the Federal Correctional Service, Abakiliki, where the exercise took place.
He said that the exercise would also be carried out at the Correctional Service centre in Afikpo on Tuesday and urged lawyers who had cases to be present.
“The exercise is to decongest the prison within the provisions of the law because cases of inmates, who are not supposed to still be in prison, are treated.
“We discharged one person, who is not supposed to be in prison any longer, because he has overstayed the time assuming he was convicted.
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“The chief judge goes to prisons from time to time to discharge or grant bail to those who are not supposed to be inside it.
“The exercise will be as the need arises. We are hopeful of conducting it before December,” he said.
He said that the state judiciary enjoyed a harmonious relationship with the Department of Public Prosecution, DPP, and would not say it delayed cases because it worked with what it had.
Mrs. Adaobi Oputa, the Controller of the Nigerian Correctional Service in Ebonyi, described jail delivery as one of the legitimate ways of decongesting the prisons.
One of the inmates, who was granted bail, said on the condition of anonymity that he had been reformed by his prison experience.
NAN
