NAN-H-54
Cases
By Emmanuel Antswen
Makurdi, Aug. 1, 2017 (NAN) The Benue office of the Public Complaints Commission (PCC) says it has successfully resolved 2,715 complaints out of the 3,763 it received in the last two years.
Details of its 2015 and 2016 performance made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Makurdi, showed that the commission received 1,148 cases in 2,015, out of which it treated 702.
The performance report, signed by Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, PCC commissioner overseeing Benue, said that 2,615 cases were received in 2016, with 2013 of them satisfactorily resolved.
“In the course of tackling the cases, the Commission visited Gboko, Otukpo and Makurdi Prisons to investigate cases of alleged injustices.
“We had cases of alleged administrative injustice arising from the long and unwarranted incarceration of awaiting trial inmates. After our investigation, we made recommendations to the appropriate authorities for speedy redress of such injustices.
“We also considered cases of convicts serving jail terms for failure to pay court fines, and intervened on some cases as part of efforts to reduce the prison population.
“Our visit also offered us the opportunity to assess the conditions of inmates, the prisons and even its workers,” he said.
Tsav, former commissioner of Police in Lagos State, further stated in the report that PCC paid fines of 12 convicts, who were serving jail terms over minor offences, but had options of fines.
The report criticised the long adjournment on cases which could otherwise be disposed of summarily, and blamed that tendency for prison congestion.
“In one of the prisons, we found a suspect, Benjamin Ike, who has been awaiting trial for six years over a minor offence. We found that the Police were slow in their investigation, ostensibly to punish the accused.
“In most cases, the police failed to produce witnesses in court; sometimes they had no witnesses at all.”
The report decried the poor state of prisons, and particularly noted that they lacked basic facilities and uniforms for inmates.
It also decried the lack of vehicles to convey suspects to courts, saying that the situation had ensured that the suspects were “forgotten” in the prisons.
“At the Otukpo Prison, for instance, we saw a 27-year-old rickety Hilux which was no more in use. The prison authorities there have been helpless over that situation,” he said. (NAN)
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Edited by Ephraims Sheyin