Enugu govt donates equipment for virtual court hearing

The Enugu State Government on Friday donated equipment to the Enugu Custodian Centre to speed up the trial of criminal cases and decongest the centre.

The state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Miletus Eze, presented the items – a desktop, projector and webcam to the centre.

Mr Eze said the government discovered that some cases that involved inmates at the centre suffer undue delay, due to difficulty of producing them for trials in the court.

“With the outbreak of COVID-19, the way of doing business has changed,” he said.

The commissioner said courts in the state, including the Ministry of Justice, had started virtual hearings but discovered that unless the correctional centre was involved, trials would continue to be stalled.

Mr Eze said with the equipment, they would not have to travel far to conduct criminal cases, especially capital offences, adding that it would help in prison decongestion.

He said that decongestion would reduce complaints of lack of adequate vehicles and insecurity by correctional centre officials.

Mr Eze noted that with time, the same gesture would be extended to Nsukka Custodian Centre.

He promised that the equipment would provide reliable hearing and time saving provided there was an adequate internet network.

Receiving the items, the Controller of the Nigeria Correctional Centre in Enugu, Nicholas Obiako, thanked the state government for the kind gesture, saying it would aid speedy hearing of criminal cases.

“With this, I know when it will be put into use, the centre will be decongested and by the grace of God, we are going to make good use of it,” Mr Obiako said.