Ganduje sets up panel to review cases of inmates in Kano

• Inspects N2.8b medical facilities
• Group donates items to condemned female prisoners

Kano State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has disclosed the constitution of a special ad-hoc committee to review cases of condemned inmates confined across main and satellite prisons in Kano.

Ganduje, who stated this during his visit to Kano Central Prisons on Sallah day, said that the committee, which was entrusted with the responsibility to re-examine the punishment of the inmates, including those convicted for life imprisonment and many on awaiting list but still languishing in prisons, have two weeks to submit their recommendations.

Besides the government intervention, a Kano-based non-governmental organisation, Hayatul Khair Foundation, yesterday extended its benevolent hands by donating consumables to 20 inmates serving various jail sentences at Kano Central Prisons.

Those who benefited were 11 females already incarcerated to life sentences and nine males set free after securing their bails.

The nine male inmates, between the ages of 18 and 30, were already convicted for minor sentences with option of fines ranging between N10,000 and N20,000, which they could not afford.

Spokesperson of the foundation, Khadiza Aminu, said the intervention of the group was part of its cardinal responsibility of rendering help to the less-privilege in the society.

She noted that besides setting the inmates with lesser offence free, the foundation engages in humanitarian offering at hospitals, orphanage and less-privilege homes.

Ganduje, accompanied by Minister of Interior, Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazzau, used the occasion to announce his administration’s commitment to grant special pardon to 500 inmates in the spirit of Eid-el-Fitr. This was excluding the 50 earlier released during the celebration of the state golden jubilee.

According to Ganduje, “the committee consists of government officials and the representatives of the Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS) had already been mandated to produce names of deserving inmates within two weeks. Two hundred would be pardoned from the Central Prison while 300 would be selected across other satellite prisons.”

Besides, the governor inspected the newly-purchased medical facilities at Giginyu Specialist Hospital.

The equipment includes a 1.5 Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), a non-invasive imaging technology often used for disease detection, diagnose and treatment monitoring.

Deputy Controller of Prisons in charge of the Central Prisons, Hubale Haruna, who disclosed that of the over 2,000 inmates in the custody, more than 1,300 are still awaiting trial, urged the ex-convicts to consider the intervention as a privilege. He called on them to return to the larger society with renew hope.

Meanwhile, one of the freed inmates, Aminu Abubakar, aged 20, said that he was sentenced to six months imprisonment or payment of N20,000 fine after being convicted for stealing a mobile phone. He was shortlisted after spending two months in the Central Prisons.

Also, one of the incarcerated female inmates (names withheld) found with her little baby in the prison was said to have been committed to life imprisonment for stabbing her late husband to death, a prisons source told The Guardian.