Nigeria: Thousands of prisoners awaiting trial to be freed

Nigeria plans to free some 25,000 inmates, many of whom have been awaiting trial for years, in a bid to decongest overcrowded and unhygienic prisons and improve its human rights record. "The issue of awaiting trial inmates has become an endemic problem in Nigeria," said Justice Minister Bayo Ojo after a cabinet meeting late Wednesday (January 4). "The conditions of the prisons are just too terrible. The conditions negate the essence of prison, which is to reform."