A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, (SAN), Barrister Kehinde Kolawole Eleja has advocated the enforcement of administration of criminal Justice system in the Country to stipulate some other forms of punishments for offenders. Barrister Eleja made the suggestion in Ilorin, the Kwara State Capital while answering questions from newsmen.

The legal practitioner said such body would have the powers to sentence an offender to serve punishment in his or her state for community service without necessarily taking such accused person to prisons. According to him, such punishment will serve as a deterrent to others and thereby reduce prisons congestion.

He lamented the high number of suspects awaiting trial in Nigerian Prisons stressing that prisons in the Country today were those built in the colonial era with relative low Nigeria population crime rate compared to the current state. Barrister Eleja admitted that the Judiciary has a great role to play in prisons decongestion, adding that one of the reasons for congestions was slow pace of administration of Justice and called for the administration of criminal Justice Act to be replicated in the various states so that cases are heard from time to time.

The Senior Advocate also frowned at keeping suspects in prisons for two long over minor cases which according to him are matters that are bail able and blamed prisons conditions on some judges that grant stringent bail conditions which suspect find difficult to meet or satisfy, as well as prosecutors who adjourned cases unnecessarily.

Barrister Eleja therefore called on the authorities concerned to look at all problems resulting into prisons congestions holistically and praised the efforts of the Judiciary and the legal profession for looking for a positive solution to the problem.