400 awaiting trial at Gombe custodial centre

About 400 inmates detained at the Gombe Custodial Centre for several months are awaiting trial. The officer in charge of the centre, AC Abdulazeez Mohammed Jibia, disclosed this yesterday after he received sewing machines, carpentry and barbing tools donated to the centre by the Criminal Justice Department of the state’s Ministry of Justice. He said […]

About 400 inmates detained at the Gombe Custodial Centre for several months are awaiting trial.

The officer in charge of the centre, AC Abdulazeez Mohammed Jibia, disclosed this yesterday after he received sewing machines, carpentry and barbing tools donated to the centre by the Criminal Justice Department of the state’s Ministry of Justice.

He said the centre initially built with the capacity of 359 inmates, had overstretched its capacity and now housed over 951 inmates “with over 50 per cent of them awaiting trial before various courts in the state.”

He commended the state government for the donation and pledged that the items would be used judiciously to ensure that inmates were putting into practice the different trades they were being taught.

Earlier, the Director of Public Prosecution at the state’s Ministry of Justice, Barrister Abdussalam Mohammed,, said the items were donated to enable the inmates learn vocation skills, in order to ease their rehabilitation while serving their jail terms.