An Activist identified as Okenyi Kenechi has accused the Rivers State Government of disobeying a court order for the release of about 150 inmates at the Port Harcourt Correctional Centre.
Okenyi, who disclosed this in a statement, said the judgement was delivered in favor of the inmates who have spent about 9 years in detention without trial, on the 19th of December 2020.
He stated that on the 24th of February 2021 the state government asked the judge to set aside his own ruling.
According to him, the judge rescued himself from sitting on the matter, and that the 150 persons have remained in custody, while the case have been transferred to another.
His statement reads,
On 19th December 2020, a judge in the Rivers State High Court delivered judgment in a suit filed by Access To Freedom International, freeing over 150 inmates in the Port Harcourt correctional facility who had stayed up to 9 years without trial.
On 24th February 2021, the Rivers State Government asked the judge to set aside his own ruling. The judge recused himself from sitting on the matter. Those 150 persons have remained in prison since then while the case was transferred to another judge.
Shouldn’t the government had gone to a higher court to appeal the decision of the High Court?
Does the state government love the fact that 150 persons are sitting in prison without trial?
