Probe Judges who Jailed Underage Inmates, Charges Rights Group

Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) said it welcomed the Amnesty granted to 80 underage inmates of Badagry Prison by the Lagos State Chief Judge, Justice Olufunmilayo Atilade on August 1, 2017 but with a mixed feeling and reservations

The group pointed out that in a country operating with a Child Rights Acts by the Federal government and the Child Rights Law by the State government, it was criminal and show how perverted the justice system was that 90 per cent of a prison inmates were underage.

 They insisted that the Chief Judge of Lagos State should not only have released the underage from custody but should as a matter of necessity, put a stop to this unjudicial acts by some judges by setting up a panel to unravel those judges who jail the minors in the first instance and sanction them appropriately to serve as a deterrent to other sitting on the altar of judgment in Lagos state.

“These underage should not have been allowed to go into the free society just like that without proper reorientation and psychological fine tune taking the time they have been ostracised from the society. 

“It is time we do things like other people in decent society,” Dr. Bode Fasade said on behalf of the Rights group in a statement.