In a powerful demonstration of justice long overdue, the Chief Judge of Rivers State, Justice Simeon Amadi, on Thursday launched the state’s jail delivery exercise by releasing 21 inmates from the Port Harcourt Correctional Centre, including a man who spent 18 years behind bars without trial.
The freed inmate, Gospel Nwibari, was arrested in 2007 at the age of 14 and remained in detention ever since, without trial or legal representation. His case became a focal point of the exercise, aimed at decongesting prisons and addressing systemic failures in the administration of justice.
“This is a failure of the justice system,” Justice Amadi said. “Many inmates had no case files or traceable charges. Detaining them indefinitely serves no purpose.”
The exercise, anchored on the Rivers State Administration of Criminal Justice Law, follows months of review and recommendations by the Department of Public Prosecution (DPP) and prison authorities.
Justice Amadi stressed that while some detainees faced serious allegations such as murder and armed robbery, due process must prevail. He urged the freed inmates to embrace rehabilitation and cautioned them about the challenges of reintegration.
“Society may not easily forgive, but the law must remain just and humane,” he said.
The Port Harcourt Correctional Centre, built to accommodate 1,800 inmates, currently holds over 2,500 — a situation the Controller of Corrections for Rivers State, Felix Madumere, called unsustainable.
“If the government does not act urgently, we may have no choice but to stop taking new inmates,” Madumere warned.
Gospel’s release sparked emotional scenes. His brother, Paul Kinani, said the family had long presumed him dead.
“We searched for him for years. Getting that call from Haven360 Foundation felt like a miracle,” Kinani said. Gospel is now set to receive urgent medical care for untreated mental health issues.
Barr. Cyrus Onu, president of Haven360 Foundation — the legal advocacy group that discovered Gospel’s case in 2020 — described the release as a victory for human rights.
“He was arrested as a teenager and left to rot in the system,” Onu said. “We also secured the release of a mentally ill woman detained since 2022. These are the people the system forgot.”
Onu pledged continued support for the reintegration of released inmates, particularly those suffering from trauma and displacement.
Justice Amadi said the jail delivery initiative will continue across correctional centres in the state, reaffirming the judiciary’s commitment to systemic reform and protecting detainees’ rights.
The event was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Justice, Nigerian Correctional Service, FIDA, legal aid groups, and human rights organisations — united in the pursuit of justice, dignity, and hope for the forgotten.
