An advocacy group, Zarephath Aid, has reiterated the need for the Federal Government to audit all Correctional facilities across the country to ascertain each inmate’s case.

The group said over 80 per cent of suspects remanded in the Correctional facilities are awaiting trial, thereby congesting the facilities.

The founder of the international criminal justice group, Mr Ben Abraham made the statement during the commemoration of the United Nations International Human Rights Day while addressing newsmen in Ikeja.

Abraham lamented the spate of increasing pre-trial inmates in the nation’s custodial centres and bemoaned the plights of persons who have stayed upward of 10 years awaiting trial because their case files are stuck somewhere in the chain of the criminal justice system.

He said keeping inmates without charge or trial violates their rights.

“There is a need to match words with urgent actions in tackling this monster in our criminal justice system,” he said.

The group, however, pointed out that section 469 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015 established the Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee (ACJMC), while section 375 of the ACJL Lagos State provides for the Lagos State Criminal Justice Sector Reform Committee.

“Other states of the federation also have their various committees. These committees need to get down to work and identify the problems facing the criminal justice system as it especially affects pre-trial inmates.

“To achieve this, we strongly recommend an audit of all correctional facilities with the aim of identifying the inmates and ascertaining each inmate’s case. This committee may need to work with Non-Governmental Organisations to achieve its purpose.

“We also recommend the creation of a special panel by the AG to expedite action in the issuance of legal advice by his office.

“For this, retired Magistrates or High court judges may be employed on an ad-hoc basis. Such panels can be constituted by the Chief Judge to clear the backlog of cases awaiting trial at the Magistrate and High courts,” the group said.

The Federal and State Governments, they said, have not fully engaged Non-Governmental Organisations to decongest the prisons, adding that during the administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007, the office of the AGF engaged many groups and firms to decongest the prisons.