Families of inmates extorted daily – FCT CJ

Justice Bello said this while speaking at the inauguration of courts’ De-clogging Panels and Settlement Week Committee for the FCT Judiciary. “My heart bleeds when I come to think of how the families of those behind bars could get extorted on daily basis under the ground that charges would be reduced for their relations or even set free from the prisons. “Daily, these people are being extorted and they dare not open their mouths because they fear that they might be aggravating the conditions of their own behind bars,” he said. Justice Bello added that the syndrome of adjournment of cases on the grounds that investigation is not concluded will no longer be tolerated. “If we discharge any suspect, let them re-arrest. We will not make any order against arrest. But as soon as they do that, we are giving them two weeks within which they must lead evidence,” he said. He said the Settlement Week Committee would be charged with the adjudication of over 300 civil cases (some dating as far back as 2006) through the alternative dispute resolution mechanism. The police said they are ready to cooperate with all the steps. “Those cases we can no longer continue with their trials, we will be very straightforward to say so,” CSP James Idachaba, the representative of FCT Police Commissioner, said.]]>