UYO
The Chief Judge of Akwa Ibom, Justice Ekaete Obot, has released unconditionally a total of 54 inmates in the four Correctional Centers in the State located at Ikot Abasi, Eket, Ikot Ekpene and Uyo.
Among those released were a nursing mother who gave birth while in custody and a mentally deranged person.
She ordered the welfare unit of the correctional centre to trace the family of the mentally deranged man, Daniel Bassey Ukpong, so that he would be handed over to them for proper medical treatment.
Out of the 54 freed inmates, 18 were released on health grounds due to such sicknesses as Leprosy, Tuberculosis, Kidney Failure, HIV/AIDS among others, at the Uyo Correctional Centre.
The State Chief Judge released the inmates during an inspection visit to the facilities, which started from Wednesday and ended Friday, March 14,2025.
Apart from those released on health grounds, others were freed for want of prosecution, trump up charges and on compassionate grounds.
Obot observed that most of the inmates freed have spent between two to eight years in prison custody for minor offences without trial or charges, adding that their continuous detention without being taken to Courts was a breach of their rights and a clog in the wheel of justice.
The Chief Judge, while freeing them unconditionally, charged them to be of good behaviour and avoid anything that would bring them back to the correctional service.
In most of her ruling, she said, “You have spent more than seven years without going to court and your charge abandoned. Some of you are here on trump up charges, some have missing case files, others whose cases are lacking in prosecution and those who have serious medical issues that cannot be attended by the centre are hereby released unconditionally. Go and be of good behaviour and get better medical care for those that are sick.”
Speaking on the snail pace of Justice delivery, Justice Obot blamed the Directors of Public Prosecution, DPP, for having too many unattended cases and urged them “to up their game and clear their table before her next visit.”
She also decried the issue of missing files, as was witnessed during the tour, and charged the officer in charge of legal matters to take the concern she raised seriously.
Blessing Iniobong George, a mother of three, currently nursing a two-month-old infant, narrated how she was arrested while pregnant on allegation of child theft which she was innocent of.
She said during the vigil of her late father in-law, she was very weak having worked tirelessly with other women and had slept off on a mat alongside other women around. According to her, in the morning, one of the women said she lay her baby beside her and the baby was lost.
Blessing explained that the woman accused her of stealing her baby and all the entreaties from people fell on deaf ears as the woman got her arrested and asked her to produce her lost child or perish in jail.
The pregnant Blessing, who has never been arraigned in court, was said to have given birth in custody two months ago with the prison officials and the human rights lawyer being the only people that were taking care of her and the baby before the Chief Judge released her on compassionate ground and for the sake of the baby.
Also, two siblings, Udeme Edet Etim and Unyime Edet Etim, who were released narrated how their elder brother who they had issues with, locked them up for five years on accusations of conspiracy and stealing.
“We have been having issues with our elder brother and one day he called the police for us. We were arrested, detained and later brought to prison since 2020. They said we conspired to steal. Since that time we have been here and have not gone to court,” one of the siblings narrated.
At Eket custodial centre, one Friday Nkereuwem who spent over two years in custody told the Chief Judge how he was arrested by the father of a girl he impregnated and wanted to marry, on the claims that he abducted his daughter.
Hear him, “My Lord, I am in prison because of the girl I love. The girl was pregnant for me and when she gave birth to our baby, I was very happy and out of excitement, I took her and the child to Calabar to introduce to my parents and explain to them what transpired.
“When we later came back to Akwa Ibom, my in-law arrested me that I abducted her daughter and that is how I came here,” he added.
Meanwhile, the officers in charge of the different custodial centres in their remarks thanked the State Chief Judge for coming around and taking further steps to decongest the prisons which, they said, were overcrowded.
The officers, differently, reeled our their challenges which included lack of operational vehicles, poor logistics to convey inmates to courts, lack of power supply and breakdown of water pumps.
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