AGF Calls For Prisons' Decongestion

The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa, recently called for the decongestion of prisons in Nigeria .
The AGF made the call in Makurdi, at a seminar to mark the Benue State High Court Legal Year 2008/ 2009.
Aondoakaa said on assumption of office, he put in place a mechanism to appraise the prison decongestion programme introduced by his predecessor in office, Chief Bayo Ojo (SAN).
He said the programme was designed to decongest prisons, saying ''over the years, our criminal justice system has been bedeviled by certain challenges such as chronic delay in trial of cases.
“Also, the growing number of awaiting trial inmates, the use of holden charge, indiscriminate transfer of investigating police officers as well as disappearance of witnesses compound the problem.''
Aondoakaa explained that the effect of the challenges in the criminal justice system had manifested in large numbers of remand inmates in the prisons nation-wide.
This problem, he said, necessitated the introduction of the prison decongestion programme.
In a speech, Gov Gabriel Suswam of Benue called on judges and magistrates to expedite action on cases before them, to tackle the problem of prison congestion.
He said a situation, where a prison built for 500 inmates, now accommodated 900, called for speedy trial of Awaiting Trial Cases.

NAPEP To Disburse N163m For Village-based Development Schemes

The National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) plans to disburse N163 million as loans to residents of Enugu State for a village-based development scheme.
The scheme tagged ``Village Economic Development Solution Scheme'' have three components namely; Anchor Projects, Capacity Widening Projects and Promise Keeper Programme (PKP).
NAPEP State Coordinator Hyacinth Ngwu told the Newsday in
Enugu recently that the N163 million would be disbursed under the different
programmes.
According to Ngwu, Anchor Projects are mini cottage industries to be operated by rural cooperative societies.
Such rural societies must have been approved by traditional rulers before applying to NAPEP for recognition.
The Capacity Widening Projects on the other hand are cooperative societies that are bigger than the ones under the Anchor Projects.
They projects will be specialized and have comparative advantage in the production of cash crops within their locality.
The PKP are cooperatives managed by faith-based organizations and designed to assist their members with small credit facilities.
According to Ngwu, there are 36 identified Anchor Projects in the state.
These will gulp N65 million, while 50 Capacity Widening Projects will receive N86 million.
The coordinator said that 10 PKP would be given N12 million for disbursement to their members under the scheme.
Ngwu said that loans for Anchor and Capacity Widening Projects would be released through Micro Finance Banks that would ensure recovery of the loans.
He added that the first disbursements under the Village Solution Scheme would be released before the end of the month.
NAN reports that poverty eradication is central to President Musa Yar'Adua's 7-Point Agenda.
The Village Solution adopts a bottom-up approach to community development.
Under the arrangement the villages will organize themselves into community development groups, with government providing technical expertise and loan facilities.