The nation’s prisons are congested. Sadly enough, about 70 per cent of the inmates are awaiting trial, and stakeholders blame the government, judicial officers, lawyers and the police. What should be done to decongest the prisons? Senior Correspondent, JUDE KENNETH attempts a panacea
Analysts have asserted that Nigerian prisons are far below international standard. Their assertions are anchored on the visible facts on the ground, which include congestion, outdated facilities, and maladministration.
For a human rights group, conditions in the nation’s prisons are appalling, hence it is investigating allegations of overcrowding, torture and killings.
President of the African Youth for Conflict Resolution, Suleiman Shuaibu, said the condition of our prisons is a national problem.
His words: “Everywhere in Nigeria, inmates are suffering. The prison yard is congested. The atmosphere where they sleep is not conducive. They don’t have blankets.”
A research showed that prison conditions in Nigeria are harsh due to overcrowding. Statistically, the number of prisons in the country is 239, with total capacity of 49,505. As at April 30 this year, the total number of inmates stood at 55,935. Out of this figure, convicted male prisoners are 17,402 while their female counterparts are 254, totaling 17,656, representing 32 per cent of convicted prisoners.
Conversely, the awaiting trial prisoners are 37,444 (male) and 835 (female), totalling 38,279. This represents 68 per cent.
There is a recent case where an accused person spent over 10 year in detention without trial. One Kevin Robert, a Lagos-based transporter who was arrested in 2008 for alleged armed robbery, was only discharged and acquitted last Wednesday, October 22, by Justice Reliatu Adebiyi of Lagos High Court, Igbosere, after about six years incarceration without trial. According to Robert, since he was arrested and taken to prison, he was never arraigned. What is more pathetic about Robert is that the first accused, who was arrested and incarcerated along with him in Kirikiri Maximum Prisons, was released by Then Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Ayotunde Phillips, during her official visit to the prisons in 2012.
According to Robert, there are many others in the prison awaiting trial. Some have been there without anybody to bail them or charge them to court.
Also, the Network for Police Reforms said that one Stephen Anoruo, an Owerri-based transporter who was incarcerated since 2008 on trumped up charges, is still in prison. TheNiche investigation reveals that problem between the executive and judiciary in Imo State stalls the case.
NOPRIN coordinator, Okechukwu Nwanguma, also said he had written to the state’s chief judge drawing attention to the case, but without getting reply till date.
The over 38,000 inmates recorded above may be having similar problem, thus contributing to prison congestion.
Causes
Stakeholders in the justice sector posit that factors that largely contribute to prison congestion are slow pace of justice delivery, attitude of the federal government on expansion of structures. Lawyers and the police were also accused of contributing to the problem.
Chijike Jakponna, a Lagos-based lawyer who specialised in criminal matters, said the judiciary and lawyers contribute to the problems in the nation’s prisons. According to him, the rules of the Lagos High Court are affecting the poor.
“Most times, the magistrate grants bail with conditions that the accused should produce surety who is a blood relation with landed property, and if the accused has no blood relation or if the surety has no landed property, the suspect will be taken to the prisons and he will remain there without bail,” he said.
He also attributed the issue of overcrowding to long adjournments by some judges and magistrates, saying that cases are adjourned for up to four months, and the accused is remanded in prison until the case is disposed of. Sometimes, a criminal case may last up to 12 years.
Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Felix Fagbohungbe, blamed the federal government for not giving enough attention to prison facilities. He said the federal government abandoned the prisons.
“No yearly budget for fiscal development, expansion. No attention to prisons, while the population is increasing,” he said.
Fagbohungbe said structures that were built about 50 years ago are still there, pointing out that Kirikiri, which was built some years ago, was located several kilometres away from Lagos. But today, the area has fast developed and the government is not thinking of relocation or expanding the capacity. He posited that with the increase of the inmates, there should be more structures to increase the capacity, as prison is for reformation.
Commenting on the role of the police, the learned silk said it is a chain event because they have insufficient facility to investigate cases as fast as expected. According to him, the inability of the police to speed up investigation is largely due to lack of adequate facility for their work.
“It is still the federal government problem,” he asserted.
A public affairs analyst believes that the police should not be exonerated from the problem of prison congestion.
“The police are culprits. They arrest people on suspicion and clamp them into detention on the orders of the magistrate. They (suspects) will be there waiting when full trial will commence. Sometimes, the suspect will be there for years awaiting the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP)’s advice.
Government’s action
However, to decongest the country’s prisons, the federal government, sometime ago, set up an inter-ministerial presidential committee on decongestion of prisons nationwide. The committee was inaugurated by the Minister of Interior, Abba Moro.
During the inauguration, the minister urged the committee to investigate the immediate and remote causes of prison congestion and make necessary recommendations to solve the problem.
Moro was particularly concerned with the awaiting trial inmates who have remained in the prison beyond the period they could have served if they had been convicted.
During his recent visit to Kirikiri prisons in Lagos, following the prisoners’ riot on October 10, the minister said government was putting plans together with some regulations to ensure that prisons achieved the purpose of correcting and reforming prisoners.
“We are looking for options of making our prison better. Happily, it is starting from Kirikiri, and by the grace of God and the understanding of members of the public, we will take steps now to ensure that the prison system conforms to what is obtainable in the international community.
“Because of the problem of the past where prisoners are put together in one cell, whether the person is a murderer, an armed robber or a hardened criminal, what the prison authority has done now, which is awaiting implementation, is to categorise crimes and criminals,” he said.
But an ex-convict, who was jailed in Nigeria, has described prisons in Nigeria as a training ground for hardened criminals.
Similarly, Kayode Williams of the Prison Rehabilitation Ministry International says the prisons in Nigeria had no capacity of reforming criminals, positing that the prisons and the prisons’ officials need complete reform.
With the commencement of the new legal year in all the states of the federation, including the federal high courts, state chief judges are expected to visit prisons within their states to release inmates who have remained in confinement beyond the time they would have served, if they had been convicted. It is pathetic to note that some inmates, especially those in the maximum security prisons, have been incarcerated for rover 30 years without trial.
It was also noted that some of the inmates allegedly committed minor offences like fighting, wandering and reckless driving.
Obsolete laws
For Lukman Adefolalu of Zero Corruption Coalition (ZCC) based in Abuja, laws on Nigeria prisons services need to be reviewed to pave way for improved services and prison condition.
Adefolalu said the country’s policy is ‘somersaulting’, stressing the need for Nigerians to practise the best law for its prisons.
State chief judges, he added, should pay regular visits to prisons and release inmates that are due.
On the police, Adefolalu said the outfit is operating under obsolete and outdated laws which need to be reviewed.
As the new legal year commences, state chief judges who have not performed the statutory function of releasing prison inmates who have remained beyond what the law said, should try to perform. By so doing, they will reduce the overcrowded prisons nationwide.