Relying on experience gathered from his recent decongestion exercise across Medium Correctional Centers located in Kogi, the Chief Judge of the state, Hon. Justice Josiah Majebi, has advocated for more attention to providing logistics for the Nigerian Correctional Service to boost criminal justice delivery.
Citing inability of Correctional Centers to provide transportation logistics for suspects to appear in courts as clog in Justice delivery, he said such were partly responsible for congestion of criminal cases in courts, delay, and seeming ineffectiveness in criminal justice administration.
Justice Majebi made this observation on Wednesday when he received the new Comptroller of Correctional Service for Kogi State, Mrs. Hadiza Ina Aminu, who paid a familiarization visit to the CJ at the Judiciary headquarters in Lokoja, the state capital, yesterday.
He craved for more productive synergy among all stakeholders in the administration of justice saying the roles of the Judiciary and the Correctional Service were fundamentally intertwined and must be made truly effective.
He urged the new Comptroller to reach out to the state government and other stakeholders to address challenges observed during his visit to the prisons.
He said she should explore the state Government’s demonstrated readiness to provide logistic support to security agencies in the state recalling that some of the agencies had benefitted from the state in the form of vehicles in the past.
He expressed confidence that if his guest makes formal presentation of the challenges confronting the Service, the state government and other relevant bodies would provide respite over them.
Other stakeholders, he said, would readily support the Service within their means as it has become obvious that all hands must be on deck to make Correctional Centers visibly impactful on societal deviants by living up to its name. The journey to attaining that is the responsibility of all and not that of the Service or government alone he added.
While commending the Service for proper maintenance of facilities in the state, especially environmental cleanliness and coordination by its personnel, he thanked the Comptroller for the visit and assured that the judiciary would do whatever it can, within its powers, to always assist the Service in the state.
Earlier, Mrs. Aminu had asked the CJ for collaborative support to overcome the problems being faced by her officers at the Correctional facilities which were enumerated during the decongestion exercise to include conveyance of Awaiting Trial Inmates to courts, upgrade of medical facilities, power and water supply as well as skills acquisition facilities among others.
The Comptroller who said her visit was to formally familiarize herself with the Hon. CJ and the Judiciary to strengthen existing relationship said it was also aimed at securing the Chief Judge’s and the Judiciary’s assurance of a tighter collaboration for her to achieve set goals in the state.
The Kogi state-born Comptroller thanked the CJ for his admonitions.
She was accompanied in the visit by other top personnel of the Service in the state who said they were celebrating the historical deployment of the first female Correctional Service Comptroller to the state which they were unanimous would benefit their command and the State.
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