By Tionge Hara
MZUZU-(MaraviPost)-Scores of prisoners who were released from jail on Sunday by the prison inspectorate as one way of decongesting the country’s prison cells in response to the prevention of further spreading of Covid-19 are currently stranded in Mzuzu town since they had no money to use for transport to their respective homes.
A snap check to a number of hot-spots in Mzuzu town conducted by Maravipost found scores of released inmates stranded and begging for transport money to communicate to their respective homes.
One of the ex-convicts, Jeromy Chavula who had to travel to Manyamula in Mzimba district said most of the prisoners were not aware of their release so they had no time to inform relatives back home to send them money meant for transport to their respective homes.
“We were not notified of our impending release which came about on Sunday at noon. We had no time to inform our relatives of the need to send us transport money since this release has surprised most of us, so we are indeed stranded here in Mzuzu town,” Chavula said.
Commenting on the development, the northern region prison Public Relations Officer (PRO), Sergeant Austin Masangwale also expressed unaware with the directive to release convicts from lawful custody which came about on Sunday.
“We were not aware of the development, so inmates could not inform their relatives of the impending release,” Masangwale said.