Ogun CJ Frees 29 Inmates, Seeks More Custodial Facilities

The Chief Judge of Ogun State, Justice Mosunmola Dipeolu, on Monday ordered the release of 29 inmates from custodial centres in Abeokuta as part of ongoing efforts to decongest prisons across the state.

The beneficiaries comprised 23 inmates from the New Abeokuta Custodial Centre, Oba, and six from the Old Abeokuta Custodial Centre, Ibara. They regained their freedom during a jail delivery exercise held in Abeokuta.

Justice Dipeolu explained that the exercise was designed to review pending cases, fast-track justice delivery, tackle prolonged pre-trial detention and support the rehabilitation and reintegration of inmates into society.

She lamented that the five correctional facilities in Ogun State were heavily congested, warning that the situation posed serious challenges to the justice system and the welfare of inmates and personnel.

According to her, regular jail delivery exercises, wider use of non-custodial sentences for minor offences, as well as restitution and compensation to victims remain crucial reforms to ease pressure on the correctional system.

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“Measures such as regular jail delivery exercises, the imposition of non-custodial sentences for minor offences, restitution and compensation to victims, and other judicial reforms are essential in safeguarding the integrity and efficiency of our justice administration,” she said.

The Chief Judge recalled that the state judiciary recently carried out a major decongestion exercise at the Sagamu Correctional Centre between Monday, November 24, 2025, and Friday, December 5, 2025.

During that intervention week, eight magistrates sat daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. to hear and review cases considered suitable for accelerated hearing, outright discharge, or conversion to non-custodial measures in line with relevant laws.

“At the conclusion of the exercise, 187 inmates were released from the Sagamu Correctional Centre,” Justice Dipeolu disclosed. “We had an intervention week at Sagamu where eight magistrates sat from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. for one week to decongest the prisons, and they were able to release about 187 inmates from Sagamu. So, that has reduced the number there as we speak.”

While acknowledging the impact of the interventions, she insisted that jail delivery exercises alone could not resolve the persistent problem of overcrowding in custodial centres across the state.

Justice Dipeolu attributed part of the pressure on the correctional facilities to rising crime rates, which, she noted, had also increased the workload of judges and magistrates.

“It’s a societal problem; crime rates are going up every day,” she said. “We have a lot of cases in court — a judge in Ogun State has at least three hundred cases in his docket and as we work, we get more.”

She therefore called on the Ogun State Government to urgently construct more correctional facilities and expand existing ones to cope with the growing number of inmates.

“So we need the intervention of government. The jail delivery exercise isn’t enough to decongest the correctional centers, we need more correctional centers, we need to expand, and that can only be done by the government,” she added.

The latest releases in Abeokuta and the earlier decongestion drive in Sagamu form part of wider national efforts to reduce overcrowding in Nigerian correctional centres, where a large proportion of inmates remain in pre-trial detention for prolonged periods.