Kogi to adopt non-custodial sentences to decongest correctional centres

Acting Chief Judge of Kogi State, Justice Henry Olusiyi, has said the state Judiciary would adopt non-custodial sentences, as well as fast-track dispensation of criminal matters to decongest correctional centres.

Olusiyi disclosed this, when correspondents of various media outfits, covering the Judiciary under the auspices of ‘Judiciary Correspondents’, paid him a courtesy call at the state High Court in Lokoja.

The jurist said that the disruption of global setting by COVID-19 pandemic had affected every sector, including the Judiciary, thereby necessitating restructuring of the system.

“We are going to give prominence to criminal matters, but not to the detriment of civil matters.

We will make sure we deal with criminal matters expeditiously, so that our correctional centres would be decongested.

“We want to, as much as possible, decongest our correctional centres, making sure only those who really need to be incarcerated are sent there,” he said.

Olusiyi revealed that in the new dispensation, the judiciary would adopt non-custodial sentences as alternative punishment, as much as possible.

“We want to make sure that where we can do non-custodial sentences, we will go along that line. It is not every case that will end up in correctional centres. We can apply non-custodial punishments,” he said.