A non-governmental organisation, Legal Care Advocacy Foundation has dragged the Rivers State government, the Commissioner of Police in the State, and the Deputy Comptroller, Maximum Security Custodian Centre Port Harcourt to court over the continued detention of more than 100 inmates.
It is demanding the release of the inmates from the Port Harcourt Correctional center.
According to the NGO, some of the inmates have spent more than 10 years without trial, arraignment or DPP advice.
When the matter was mentioned, Justice Harriba Dagogo Jack after listening to the applicant’s lawyer, ordered that a hearing notice be served on the three respondents before adjourning the case to the 14th of October, 2022, for hearing.
Counsel to the NGO, who spoke after the court proceedings, explained that the inmates’ condition at the correctional center is horrible.
“Some of them have been there since 2010, no information has been proffered about them in court. They have been there on the remand of the magistrate court, a procedure which is a holding charge and is alien to our criminal justice system in Nigeria.
“This application is brought to secure their freedom, either pending when the information will be proffered or when they will be discharged by a court that has jurisdiction to hear their matter,” he said.