Calabar Prison sources have informed www.calitown.com that manslaughter and violent armed robbery, resulting in the death of several people is the reason why 30 men in the prison are on death row. The 30, awaiting death by any means that may suit the authorities, are mostly from the neighbouring states of Ebonyi, Abia and Enugu states. A few of them, about five, are however of Cross River origin.
The sources also say, 14 inmates are in the prison serving life sentences for various crimes while a whooping 586 inmates are awaiting trial from a justice system reputed to be extra-ordinarily slow. It is on record meanwhile that “most of the inmates have had their cases speedily dispensed and we believe that the Cross River state Chief Judge, Justice Okoi Ikpi Itam, is driving this credible process”, another source added. It is sad to note that, “majority of the lifers (those serving life sentences) are from Ogoja but it must be categorically stated that this does not mean that the this is always the case, what we are refering to are present day figures that will definitely change as more convictions come in”, the source clarified.
Painfully, www.calitown.com can also reveal that authorities of the Prison may be doing very little to put out the wave of black marketeering going on in the prison. With prison officials looking the other way, drugs like marijuana and cocaine are increasingly finding their way into the prison and insider sources have not eliminated the involvement of corrupt prison officials in running this black ring. It is believed that the drugs are obtained on the streets of Calabar from two drug rings, one operating from 8 Miles in Calabar Municipality and the other operating from White House street in Calabar South LGA. Attempts to gain exclusive access into the rings by www.calitown.com yielded minimal results as the inside source was not forthcoming again, insisting that “no be every matter I fit show you”.
