My Experience on the 5th of July,2018.
It was a
Wednesday.I left my hostel and I called other clinicians working with
me.We hurried to get a bus going to Okigwe from Umuahia so we would get
to Okigwe prison on time.We anticipated to release an inmate.
On getting to the prison,we interviewed an inmate,Chikezie Egwiro ,we
also checked the prison record to confirm what the inmate told us.We
proceeded to the court,we got the charge sheet,we met the registrar to
pay for the inmate who we interviewed because the inmate was convicted
with a fine as we were told in the prison and as the inmate said during
his interview ,we found out in the court that the condition for his
release which we got from the prison record was totally different from
what was in court.Why would the prison record be contradicting that of
the court .Why would the prison tell us that the inmate was convicted
with only fine while getting to the court he was sentenced to years in
prison .What a poor recording system we have in the prison,I thought.
Since we were already in court we decided to meet the registrar to
give us another case of an inmate who is convicted with a fine,so we can
pay nd set him free because our aim is helping indigent members of the
society.The registrar who was nice unlike what we see in other courts
attended to us.He helped us with a case we can handle.It was also a case
of an inmate named Ahmed Musa accused of stealing and convicted with a
fine.
We paid the money in other to secure his release
,the registrar issued a release warrant to the bailiff.We were so happy
that we had released someone.We got to the prison with joy to see the
inmate and take picture with him.We waited and waited for the inmate to
come out.A prison warden came out to tell us that they think the inmate
has been released since two months ago and that they had searched in the
prison they couldn’t find him.
At this point we were
disappointed,how will someone be released from the prison nd the court
has no idea of that? Is it not the court that gives the order before
anyone is released from the prison.What kind of prison system do we
have?Why do we have a poor recording system?I thought to myself, ‘this
can’t happen in a developed country were there are computers and thumb
print machine to know who leaves and enters the prison.’ At this point we
didn’t know who to blame? The court or the prison?
Our money we paid to the court,how will they refund us?
What a day
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