Legal Aid Council secures release of seven inmates

The Legal Aid Council Office in Kano State has secured the release of seven prison inmates who spent between seven and 12 years awaiting trial.

The state Zonal Coordinator, Alhaji Abubakar Umar, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kano on Sunday.
Umar said the office had also secured the release of another 15 prison inmates on bail, while five others were convicted.

He said the office had received 408 complaints from aggrieved persons between January and November this year.

He said out of the total number of cases received, the agency was able to dispose off 134, which represented 32.8 per cent of the cases received during the period under review.

According to the zonal coordinator, out of the total number of cases, 323 were civil which comprised mediation, legal advice and court cases.

“The total numbers of mediation cases were 17 while 101 were legal advice issued to individuals. The number of criminal cases received were 85, while substantive cases received and being handled at Magistrate and High courts were 45 and 40, respectively,” he said.

He also said that there were 205 substantive civil cases at various courts that were granted during the period under review.

Umar said out of the 134 completed cases, 33 were criminal while the remaining 101 were civil matters.