By JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU, Abuja
AS a measure to decongest prisons at the Federal Capital territory, FCT, Abuja, the Federal Government has established a Prerogative of Mercy Committee headed by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, SAN.

Saturday Vanguard gathered that about 545 inmates were at the FCT prison and out of the number, 101 of them had been convicted, 444 were awaiting trial while 13 were then freed.

The Commissioner, Public Complaints Commission, Chief Obunike Ohaegbu who disclosed the setting up of the committee to Saturday Vanguard after paying a courtesy visit to the minister said that the Prerogative of Mercy Committee would help to decongest the prisons as well as free inmates that had been reformed after serving several years in the prison.

Chief Ohaegbu stated that he had written to the minister in February this year on the need to constitute the committee and expressed happiness that the Attorney-General in his wisdom had set up the committee, stressing that there were some inmates that had either over stayed in the prison or had been there for several years without trial.

In the letter he had pointed out that, “The Public Complaints Commission, FCT, recently discovered that the application of prerogative of mercy on prison inmates within the FCT prison facilities is yet to be exercised since its establishment.”