President Muhammadu Buhari has granted pardon to some inmates of the Custodial Centres of the Nigeria Correctional Service NCoS, Vanguard has learned.
The move is to decongest some of the overburdened custodial centres in the wake of the Novel Coronavirus pandemic.
While it was not clear the category of inmates that would be released, Vanguard gathered that the initiative would be flagged off in Abuja on Thursday.
Interior minister, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola had last week explained that he had met the Minister of Justice and other relevant officials to agree on a proposal to be presented to the president on decongesting the facilities at this period.
However, few days after that meeting there were rumours that President Buhari had granted amnesty, a development which reportedly led to a riot at the Kaduna Custodial Centre, with four inmates dying in the process, according to officials.