Dear @MBuhari,

This is an open letter in respect of your two press releases of inmates in our prisons all over the country.

Mr President, as a prisoner's advocate, i speak for the many inmates who are locked up in our various prisons all over the country let down by our https://twitter.com/NGRPresident/status/1252655711164776449

criminal justice system. Before i comment on this your instant call for release of Awaiting Trial Inmates to the CJF, let's do a reality check on your previous claimed release of 2600 convict persons all over the country https://twitter.com/NGRPresident/status/1248233465100808192?s=19

The importance of the reality checks is to ensure that in actual fact, our prisons all over the country are decongested as KPI, as opposed to all talk and no action which inmates all over the country think it is what your press releases have become. Can we honestly blame them?

There is little evidence if at all that 2600 convicted inmates have been released from prison all over the country as I set out in this thread and the only update in addition is the claimed 72 inmates released from Kaduna Prisons which many have https://twitter.com/EfeeKoloko/status/1250020360973623296?s=19

suggested that the number of inmates released from Kaduna Prisons is not up to the number reported in news all over the country.

I was clearly disappointed when your initial releases made no mention of ATM and i set out my concerns in this thread https://twitter.com/EfeeKoloko/status/1248302912285167618?s=19

I'm glad you finally said something about ATM but here is my frank assessment, based on KPI. 2600 convicted inmates or half that number haven't been released from our prisons all over the country which is less than 10% of the overall convicted inmates

There is no evidence that

States Govt have taken steps to release or release inmates. One could easily see through their inaction as your claimed 2600 inmates is not factual but mere propaganda.

That's takes me to your letter to the CJN about ATM two days ago. The letter is very ambitious but void of any

reality because courts are not currently sitting and wouldnt sit atleast in the next one week. It is also not seen how your letter is feasible considering that the courts are the architect of prisons overcrowding. As the late Pa Jide SAN would say "can one apeal from Caesar

to Caesar and expect a different result?"

Amongst this ATM, other than petty criminals and minut % of serious criminals, a greater proportion of them are professionals, (lawyers accountants, stockbrokers etc) whom the EFCC in the arbitrariness delayed cases and these people cant

perfect the very stringent bail posted to them by courts because they are bent on clearing their names. It is not seen and contemplated how those who offers regulated services are remanded in custody and required to provide sureties when their regulated body could help track

them if they fail to attend trial?

Above all Mr President, calling for actual not audio release of inmates, is not a favour or assistance to inmates at this #ChineseVirus pandemic period but a release to the pressure on our Isolation Centres that are below standed as

Prisons are incubators for #ChineseVirus as is seen all over the world. If there is an outbreak in a prison in lagos with almost 2000 inmates as is rumoured our Isolation Centres cant handle the situation. To continue to delay to actually release inmates might cost us dearly