Following the payment of their fines, no less than 37 prisoners have been released from the Kuje Medium Custodial Centre and the Suleja Centre.

Publicly spirited individuals paid the fines in cooperation with Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA), which ranged in amount from N15,000 to N130,000.

On Friday at the Kuje Correctional Centre, Ibrahim Idris, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Command’s Comptroller of Correctional Services, handed five of the released prisoners over to representatives of PRAWA, noting that all requirements for their release had been satisfied.

Idris told reporters that Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the interior minister, should be commended for starting the procedure that resulted in the release.

He mentioned that the Minister, Olukayode Ariwoola, had urged Nigerians to pay some prisoners’ fines in order to decongest prisons nationwide at the recent National Conference on Prisons Decongestion, which was attended by judges from across the nation, including the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN).

Idris stated that a total of 37 prisoners had their fines paid for them; he added that some of the prisoners had been sentenced to prison for minor offences with the possibility of a fine but were unable to come up with the funds to pay the fines.

“We are releasing five from here today (Kuje), and four others are waiting for the processing of their paperwork,” he said. As soon as that is over, they would be immediately released. So far 37 are regaining their freedom from Kuje and Suleja centres.

“The Chief Judges of the FCT and Niger states have been here, and they are instrumental to the gesture which is aimed at decongestion of our facilities.”

Ogechi Ogu, the Deputy Director of PRAWA, made the following statement on behalf of the organisation: “Public-spirited individuals should assist the inmates in the areas of rehabilitation to enable them to integrate into the community and work for a decent living for themselves.”

She outlined how PRAWA is fighting for the decongestion of prisons in Nigeria due to the significant amounts of taxpayer money that governments spend on their feeding each year, while also making an appeal against the stigmatisation of prisoners by society.