Lawyers seek police partnership for cells decongestion

Agroup of lawyers under the auspices of Lawyers Alert yesterday called on the Inspector General of Police to partner with its organization for the decongestion of detention centres across the country.

Leader of the group, Barrister Victor Eboh, made the call when he led members to pay a courtesy visit to the Benue State Commissioner of Police at the Command’s headquarters in Makurdi.

Eboh said that the group in collaboration with Open Society Initiative for West Africa wants the cooperation of the police in line with the Presidential directive for chief judges in the country to take steps to decongest the correctional and detention centres.

He added the movement was aimed at people who committed petty offences to be accorded alternative punishment instead of leaving them in cells, thereby overcrowding and trampling on the social distancing rule of COVID-19.

Responding, the State Police Commissioner, Mukaddas Garba, commended the group, stressing that the police had been structured for thorough supervision of its operatives in order to restrain them from breaking the law.