Delta State Chief Judge Hon. Justice Tessy Diai released two inmates, Abubakar Abdullahi and Ufuoma Victor, from the Sapele Custodial Centre on Friday, marking the start of the first quarter of the 2023 jail‑delivery exercise. Abdullahi had been detained since 2020 on allegations of conspiracy, kidnapping and armed robbery, while Victor faced the same charges and had been in custody since 2022.
The chief judge explained that the court had previously struck out the case involving two other defendants who were charged alongside Abdullahi when he was still held at the Ogwashi‑Uku custodial centre. She emphasized that there was no justification for his continued detention, stating, “In the light of this development, there is no good reason for the continued detention of the defendant in this facility. He is hereby discharged.”
Shortly after his release, Abdullahi expressed joy and maintained his innocence, recounting that he had only gone to the market to buy a cell phone when an unknown person accosted him, struggled for the phone, and he was subsequently arrested and taken to court.
In her opening remarks, Justice Diai, accompanied by Chairman of the Administration of Criminal Justice Committee Justice G. B. Briki‑Okolsi, Justice A. E. Okorodas, and Justice A. A. Ighoverio, explained that the purpose of the jail‑delivery exercise is to ensure that everyone in custody is lawfully detained and that no inmate awaiting trial remains incarcerated longer than the sentence they would have served if convicted.
During the exercise, the chief judge also released 16‑year‑old Isaac Frank from the Remand Home/Children Correctional Centre in Sapele. She reviewed the cases of 208 inmates awaiting trial at the Sapele Correctional Centre, with an additional 11 inmates at the Remand Home.
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