The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mohammed Bello and the FCT Chief Judge, Justice Ishaq Bello were at the Kuje prison, Abuja, on Thursday to effect the release of 127 inmates.
The trio, former Attorney General of Ekiti State, Olawale Fapohunda and many others were in the prison in furtherance of the activities of the National Stakeholders Committee on Prison Reform and Decongestion.
Members of the committee arrived the prison premises at about 10:00 a.m. and left around 1:00 p.m. after examining cases, some of which were reviewed.
They granted bail to some inmates and while those conviction albeit with option of fines were released after guaranteeing the payment of their fines.
One of the 127 convicts granted freedom was 33-year old Abdullahi Umar, who was convicted at 16 years for culpable homicide and sentenced to death.
The government of Sokoto State where he hails from commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. He was freed on Thursday by the Stakeholders Committee on grounds of good conduct after spending about 17 years as a condemned prisoner.
Another beneficiary of the committee’s activities was a 60-year old Musa Abdullahi, who had spent eight years as awaiting trial inmate.
Abdullahi, with long grey beards, told the committee that he was arrested in 2009 on his way to visit his children in Kaduna.
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