THE House of Representatives Thursday mandated its joint Committee on Justice, Interior, Drugs and Narcotic and Financial Crimes to investigate the alleged release of 197 drug convicts.
They are also to determine the statistics of all those prosecuted and convicted by the NDLEA from its inception to date and where they served their terms.
This came following the adoption of a motion by Hassan Saleh (PDP, Benue), under matters of urgent national importance.
Leading the debate on the motion, Saleh said based on a report of the committee set up by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, which was headed by Justice Gilbert Obayan (rtd.) in 2006, about 197 persons convicted for drug trafficking offences are said not to be serving their prison terms.
"The committee's report that out of 143 drug convicts for 2006, 96 of them were never brought to the prison while another set of 101 drug convicts for 2005 were also not taken to the prison bringing the total to 197".
According to him, persons who were all alleged to have been lawfully prosecuted by the NDLEA and convicted by the court of law have been unlawfully released from prison thereby undermining the nation's criminal system.
The Guardian