There are indications that a former board chairman of the Nigeria Port Authority and a chieftain of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Bode George, may regain freedom in February 2011.
Our correspondent, who was at Kirikiri Maximum Prisons on Monday, gathered that the authorities of the Nigerian Prisons Service are preparing a formal discharge programme for the PDP chieftain.
NPS discharge programme include different session with doctors to prepare him for life after incarceration.
A senior official of NPS serving at the prison, who declined to have his name in prints because he was not authorised to speak for the service, told our correspondent that George had already been enjoying some level of freedom in preparation for his release in February.
The prison official said, “Barring any last minute pronouncement from the court, which could order immediate release of the inmate, he will leave by the end of February, going by our records here.
“As a very important inmate he was given some privileges; but now we are allowing him and others who were sentenced with him more room. We want them to adjust very well. The programme includes some psychological session and medical examination for them.”
Another NPS official told our correspondent that George was also looking forward to his release date. “He keeps more to himself and meets only with family and selected friends. He is more humble and friendly with other inmates,” he said.
However, Spokesman of the NPS, Lagos State Command, Mr. Ope Fatinikun, said it was a security risk to disclose George’s release date.
He said, “What I can tell you for now is that unlike what has been published in the media; Bode George is still with us and will only be allowed to go after he has completed his term.”
George was on Monday, October 26, 2009, convicted by Justice Olubunmi Oyewole of the Lagos High Court.
Oyewole sentenced George and four other former board members of the NPA to two years each on a seven-count charge and another six months each on a 28-count charge.
The board members, who were jailed with George, are a former NPA Managing Director, Aminu Dabo, Olusegun Abidoye, Abdullahi Tafida, Zanna Maidaribe and Sule Aliyu, who was joined as the sixth defendant after the charges were amended.
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