Edo State Chief Judge, Daniel Okungbowa, on Tuesday, granted freedom to four inmates from the Oko and Old Benin Correctional Centres in the Southern district of the state.
Among them, three were held at the Oko Medium Custodian Centre, while the fourth was detained at the Old Benin Custodian Centre.
The newly freed individuals are Emmanuel Marcus, 35; Innocent Eze, 25; Benedict Oko, 27; and Obasogie Caleb, 27.
Marcus, a native of Akwa-Ibom, had been held since January 20, 2023, without facing trial for the alleged rape of a 17-year-old girl.
Eze, hailing from Delta, faced charges of armed robbery and had been in detention for one year and five months without a case file.
Similarly, Oko, also from Delta, was charged with kidnapping and had spent one year and four months in detention without a trace of his case file.
Caleb, from Edo, faced charges of robbery and murder and had spent a year and four months without a case file detailing his charges.
Chief Judge Okungbowa discharged and released the quartet due to the inability to provide their case files and evidence against them.
He emphasized that detainees cannot be held indefinitely while waiting for the police to locate their missing case files.
Okungbowa urged those benefitting from his decision not to misuse the opportunity but to view it as a chance to start afresh.
“Today is especially significant to me for the very obvious reason that it is my first visit to Correctional Centres in Edo State as the chief judge and chairman of the Edo State Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee (ACJMC).
“Although it must be said that I have previously visited these facilities for jail delivery exercises such as this, many times with my predecessor(s) in office.
“Section 470(2) of Edo State, Administration of Criminal Justice Law 2018, has entrusted the ACJMC with the mandate to ensure that criminal matters are speedily dealt with and congestion of criminal cases in courts are drastically reduced,” the CJ had earlier said.
He affirmed his commitment to ensure that no one was made to stay in custody one day longer than necessary unless as prescribed by law.
Osogun Olusegun and Idowu Enodiakemhe, deputy controllers of Oko and Benin facilities, respectively, requested more vehicles to ease the movement of inmates to and from the courts.
They noted that the correctional centres currently serve about 60 different courts in the state.
They also called for court cells to temporarily house inmates during court sittings before they were taken back to the correctional centres.
They said this would enhance safety and avert the possibility of inmates attempting to escape within the court premises.