Joel Agya, chief judge of Taraba, identified 169 awaiting trial cases pending in the Medium Custodian Centre in Jalingo on Thursday with a pledge to intervene.

Mr Agya, while interacting with inmates in the correctional centre, observed that many of the cases were minor but were left pending for two to five years.

He was visiting the centre for the first time since his appointment as the number one judge of the state.

Mr Agya said some inmates had no business in the custodian centre, noting that those cases were from magistrates and other lower courts.

He said he was at the centre to help grant bail and discharge some of those inmates on such categories, but the absence of some magistrates handling such cases and discrepancies between police prosecutors and the Ministry of Justice caused him to shift the exercise to another date.

Mr Agya also assured the inmates that he would follow up on the cases to ensure they were granted bail as soon as those concerned magistrates returned from their official engagements.

He thanked the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS) for the robust partnership with the state judiciary in ensuring that justice was served to the common man.

” I will not go into cases that attract capital punishment such as kidnapping, armed robbery and culpable homicide,” he said.

Earlier, Murtala Haruna, controller of NCS Taraba command, thanked the chief judge for the visit.

 “Your visit is a testament to the fact that judiciary is the last hope of a common man,” he said.