By Jide Oyewusi

SIR: The purported release to the public of over 4,000 inmates serving various prison terms in Nigeria ostensibly to decongest the prisons is a very bad and sad omen for the entire country.

In the first place, these were people who had committed various offences, some very grievous atrocities against the Nigerian state, tried in courts of competent jurisdiction and sentenced accordingly.

If they are now being released in this manner without completing their period of sentences, what signal does that send to other criminally-minded individuals within the society? Are such rogues not being encouraged to keep up with their sordid games? Moreover, what does this indiscriminate release of prisoners do to the psyche of even the judges who had passed the judgements who may now be the subjects of attacks by men of the underworld?

Indeed, what impact is such release going to have on the entire justice system in Nigeria if not to dampen the morale of judicial workers who would now see their jobs as becoming valueless? In saner climes, what the state does in case of prison congestion is to invest in massive construction of such facilities just to ensure that criminals are kept where they truly belong and in order not to jeopardise the lives of innocent people.

Nigeria also has more than enough resources for this but its leaders prefer investing mainly in different shades of profligacies such as the procurement of expensive SUVs for legislators and the award of billions of Naira to them for their oversight functions and constituency projects.

It amounts to a failure on the part of the government when prisoners are being released indiscriminately to the public before the expiration of their prison sentences. Indeed, it’s an ill wind that would bring no one any good ultimately. Jide Oyewusi is the

coordinator of Ethics Watch International, Lagos.