-Justice Alusine Sesay
June 6, 2016 By Hassan Gbassay Koroma
Appeals Court Judge of Sierra Leone, Justice Alusine Sesay has said that despite the judiciary had asked them to be granting bail to accused persons in remand as a way of decongesting the prisons, but noted that some inmates deserve to continuously be remanded for the security of peaceful citizens.
Justice Sesay was speaking last week when a matter of robbery with aggravation involving one Alimamy Conteh was mentioned in court.
He said due to the nature of the offence charged, he was mindful of granting bail to the accused, despite the period of time he had spent at the Pademba Road Male Correctional Centre in Freetown.
It could be recalled that many civil society and human rights organizations have raised serious concerns over the congestion of the Male Correctional Centre on Pademba Road.
The Pademba Road Maximum Prison was built in 1914 with a capacity for 324 inmates, but the centre is currently housing over one thousand inmates and such is largely being blamed on the judiciary, which they say has over the years fail to speedily try cases.
According to statistics, armed robbery has been on the increase in the country as many gang groups and clique boys continue attacking innocent people with knives and other harmful objects, thereby forcefully taking away their properties.
Many cases had been reported on how boys armed with harmful instruments, keep terrorizing people in the city.