Lucky Obukohwo, Reporting
A group, Edo Civil Society Organizations EDOCSO, has blamed the political, religious and traditional leaders for not speaking truth to power when they are needed most for the interest of the country.
The group also called for the overhauling of the Nigerian justice system to address the issues of overcrowding in the nation’s Correctional Centres.
Speaking on the theme: Our rights, our future, right now” to mark the world Human Rights Day celebration in Benin City, the Coordinator General of the group, Comrade Omobude Agho, said his recent incarceration has shown that 80 percent of Nigerians are languishing in the nation’s correctional centres without trials.
He said those who spoke with him while in the Correctional Centre, told him that they could not provide the money requested for by the prosecuting officers, consequently, they were taken to court and remanded in the Correctional Centre.
Comrade Agho said the only way out is for the nation’s judicial system to be reviewed in order to address issues as they come and sentence anyone found guilty of a crime and free the innocent without allowing them to suffer unnecessarily.
Agho, while lamenting the hardship that has befallen Nigerians in the midst of abundant mineral resources, said the country has no reason to suffer if our political leaders have made judicious usage of them.
He further decried the situation where the country’s money was stolen and starched in foreign countries which was recovered and stolen to be starched in the same banks and in the same countries and nothing is being done about it.
Speaking on the essence of the day, the Director of Women Affairs of the group, Leftist Grace Okike said it is to get the citizens of the state know their rights and say no to every oppressive tendency anywhere they come across such.