Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba
Chairman, Delta State Advisory Council on the Prerogative of Mercy, Chief Patrick Okpakpor, has described as worrisome that as many as 222 inmates in the medium security prison in Warri are on death row.
Okpakpor, who was Delta State’s pioneer Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, raised the concern when he led a delegation of the advisory council members on his maiden visit to Okere Warri Prison recently.
Members of the council on the visit included the secretary, Mrs. Uju Monye, Dr Samuel Efetobor, Mr. John Okoriko and F. Njuokuemeni.
The council members were also startled to learn that a husband and his wife, who are serving a 37-year jail term, were among the inmates in Warri Prison.
As a result of their incarceration, the prisoner-couple had been forced to leave their six children at the mercy of neighbours and the society.
Although, the charge or charges upon which the couple was sentenced could not be ascertained, the 71-year old man, who is already partially blind, pleaded with the committee to consider their plight and grant them pardon.
He also expressed shock at the “undignified and dehumanising conditions†inmate were being detained, and appealed to the Federal Government to have a rethink concerning the issue of capital punishment in the country.
The chairman of the council, who was conducted round the detention facilities by the Deputy Comptroller of Prison, Mr. Sam Airiohuodion, further suggested that the Federal Government should treat as “a national emergency†the magnitude of congestion in the prison.
Okpakpor urged the government to make adequate budgetary provisions to expand the already overstretched facility, which he noted was originally designed and built to accommodate no more than 307 inmates but now holds over 1,500 inmates.
On the purpose of the visit, the chairman said “as a statutory body empowered to advise the Governor in exercise of powers vested on him by the Constitution in granting amnesty to prisoners, the Council would make appropriate recommendations to the Governor for clemency to deserving inmates on death row and others serving various terms of imprisonment.
He however stressed that that only qualified applications received by the Council would be considered and forwarded for appropriate approval.
Earlier, the Deputy Controller in charge of Warri Prison, Airiohuodion, who expressed joy on visit of the Council chairman, appealed to the federal and the state governments to address the crisis situation facing the prisons in Delta State through the construction of additional facilities to accommodate the inmates including the condemned convicts.