Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina state has released six inmates on death row and reduced the severity of 11 other inmates on death row.
In a statement by the public relations officer of the Nigeria Correctional Centre in Katsina, Najibullah Idris, the governor acted based on the power vested on him.
He said the gesture was to mark the independence day celebration as the need for the decongestion of correctional centres across the country.
Najibullah said the six inmates have been released by the centre while those with commutation have been effected.
Nine inmates on death row were commuted to life imprisonment, one of them was commuted to 15 years in prison while the other one was commuted to 30 years in prison.
“The Assistant Controller General of Corrections Incharge zone B comprising of Katsina, Jigawa,Kano and Kaduna, ACG Usman Abubakar acting upon the directives of the Controller General of Corrections Halliru Nababa released the inmates whom were granted the pardon/commutation by the State Governor.”
He said the state controller of correction, Muhammad Abdulmumin Haruna commended governor Masari for the gesture.
He called on judges in the state to make use of non custodial measures to complement the efforts being made to decongest prisons.
“The Controller of Corrections Katsina State Command, CC Muhammad Abdulmumin Haruna applauded the State Government for the kind gesture and appealed to court judges and magistrate to make use of non custodial measures in reducing the over populated custodial facilities in the state so as to enable the service to perform it’s statutory duties of reformation, rehabilitation and reintegration of inmates back to the society as law abiding citizens.”
