The Jigawa command of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) has inaugurated an 11-member Parole Board.

Chief judge of Jigawa, Justice Umar Sadik, inaugurated the board on Wednesday in Dutse. Justice Abdulhadi Sulaiman represented the chief judge.

He said incorporating the parole system into Nigeria’s Criminal Justice Administration would decongest custodial centres and reduce administrative costs.

“The inauguration of the parole board for Jigawa state could not have come at a better time than this when the implementation of the provision of the Administration of Criminal Law is at top gear,” stated Mr Sadik. “It is lamentable to state that we’ve borrowed the British penal system without the accompanying safety elements of the parole system and the borstal homes.”

“If the parole system had earlier been incorporated into our Criminal Justice Administration, our country and society would have been saved from prison congestion and its concomitant financial burden and frequent jailbreak,” he added.

NCoS controller in Jigawa, Muazu Charanchi, described parole as a temporary or permanent release of a convict from lawful custody before the expiration of his sentence.

Mr Charanchi said parole would end an inmate’s punishment and service term outside the correctional centre on the promise of good behaviour.

(NAN)