182, not 482 Ebonyi indigenes on death row in Enugu prison – Govt

Rejoinder;  “Ebonyi govt raises alarm over 482 indigenes on death row in Enugu Prison.

The attention of Ebonyi state government has been drawn to a report with the above caption in your medium of Nov 3, 2025.

This response is not to join issues if any but to correct the erroneous impression and obvious misrepresentation of facts that were the subject of the report. The clarification becomes necessary for the purpose of well-meaning citizens who we feel deserve to know

Your medium made a spurious claim that 482 indigenes of Ebonyi state are on death row in Enugu Prison. I make bold to state that the statement under reference is false and unfounded. It is meant to misinform and mislead the members of the public . In fact for the purpose of records, the correct number of persons Ebonyi state has in Enugu Prison is 182.

This is to clarify that the figure you quoted in your publication never emanated from the Honourable Attorney General of the state, Dr Ben Uruchi Odoh, whom you attributed the story to and should be entirely disregard by the public. We urge the public to rely on official structures for information regarding Ebonyi state and her activities.

In the first place, the forum was an audience participatory program Christened ‘ Civic catalyst accountability Forum ” to provide a platform for the Honourable Attorney General of the state to report progress ensuring accountability thereby mobilizing efforts for the actualization of the people’s charter of justice.

It is on record that the justice sector reform in Ebonyi state has brought a lot of transportation. One of such transformation is the establishment of the office of the Public Defender. This is for the indigents who don’t have money to pay for legal representation. This is because everyone, including the indigent, needs to have unfiltered justice.

The Ministry of Justice in the present administration has also established Ebonyi state Mediation centre where every form of civil matters is resolved. If one doesn’t have money, his matter will be signed to chartered mediators. Infact, it is exclusively for the indigents citizens of the state.

It now  has E- Ministry of Justice or rather virtual court proceedings where legal officers can be in their houses and do their filings and witnesses give their evidence . Virtual hearing devices have been stored in the Chief Magistrate court, as the lawyers are talking, the machine is recording and lawyers can be at their comfort zone and represent their clients.

Presently, concerted efforts are being made to disintegrate the Ministry of Justice into three judicial units and also to ensure that the citizens mediation centre is established in 13 local government area of the state where people can go and ventilate their grievances.

In a way to go with the trend and not to be left behind, the ministry came up with capacity building for lawyers for professional development courses, established an Information Communication Technology and law reporting department to produce and report our laws.

Out of the 998 cases the ministry inherited under the tutelage of Dr Odoh the as the Attorney General,  118 cases have been concluded while 606 are still pending. In civil matters, 445 cases have been concluded and 452 are remaining, out of which 303 are revenue matters.

The ministry has assisted the government to draft reasonable laws, drafted 32 bills to House of Assembly for passage into law, one of which is bill to review the monetary jurisdiction of the Magistrate court from N500,000 to N5 million among others.