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COVID-19: 115 inmates released in Nasarawa, get N5,000 each

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Correctional Service arrests 25 out of 122 fleeing inmates

The Nasarawa State Government on Wednesday released about 115 inmates from the six correctional centres in the state as a way of further curbing the spread of the dreaded COVID-19 disease pandemic in the state.

The release of the inmates is coming on the heels of a directive by President Muhammadu Buhari to decongest prisons to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

The state Governor, Abdullahi Sule said at a brief ceremony on Wednesday in Lafia, that the freed inmates are expected to be agents of positive change to the society.

The governor, who was represented by the Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of the state, Dr Abdulkarim Kana, charged the freed inmates to be law-abiding in order not to find themselves back in the correctional centre.

“As you can see, you are released unconditionally, whatever crime you have committed have been pardoned, you can live a successful life without committing a crime, find anything you can do to earn a living,” said.

The governor also enjoined the inmates to comply with government’s directive on COVID-19 such as observance of physical distancing, coughing into elbows, staying at home, washing of hand with soap and water and also use alcohol-based sanitisers.

Read also: FG worried over growing COVID-19 cases in Kano

Sule further explained that the Federal Government facilitated their release by paying for damages and compensation of some inmates, while Nasarawa State government paid various fines to secure their release.

The state government, according to reports, had given the sum of N5,000 to each of the freed inmates as transportation fare to ease their movement to their destinations.

While speaking at the ceremony, the NCS Controller in Nasarawa State Command, Emmanuel Okoro, advised the freed inmates to be law-abiding and shun any act capable of bringing them back to the correctional facilities.

According to him, the freedom of the inmates was in compliance with the presidential directive, which aimed at decongesting the correctional facilities against COVID- 19 in the country.

“COVID-19 transmit faster in the crowded environment, and you know that the correctional facilities are crowded that is why the President in his wisdom instructed that they should be decongested, we know where you are going and we will keep a tap on you,” he said.

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