My name is Mary Onyanta Omoha, a 400 level clinician from the
University of Abuja Law Clinic and drawing from my participation in the
NULAI/OSIWA pretrial detention project, I came to a conclusion that to detain a
person before he is found guilty of a crime is one of the most oppressive
decision a state or person can make. Pretrial detention is one of the worst thing
that can happen to a person. I must confess, I have never had a deep
conversation until I met with the detainees in prison. Having interacted with
various inmates, I noticed how some have given up on ever gaining freedom,
(even mentally). From one on one conversation, I gathered some are falsely
imprisoned for crime they never committed. Some were held in prison only based
on assumption since they were found at the wrong place at the right time.
Others are chained and jam-packed in a small room. Some of them, their wives,
children, or families are not even aware they are in prison. Locking up people
who are presumed innocent is not only a violation of international norms, but
also unnecessary. I felt pity upon hearing the circumstance surrounding their
arrest.
The experience I had with the detainees are significant
because it appeals to me. The presumption of innocence is a constitutional
right of every person as provided in section 36(5) of the 1999 constitution (as amended) which States that: “
Every person who is charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed to be
innocent until he is proven guilty “. If a person has not been found guilty of
a crime, why is such person falsely imprisoned? Most of the time, some
detainees are in prison without even being accused. It is important to bear in
mind that pretrial detainees are presumed innocent in accordance with the
universally accepted notion of due process. This aspect of false imprisonment
amount to the violation of their fundamental rights. The maximum period of
detention ranges from 24 hours to 7 days depending on which section of
legislation you are being detained under.
Many of the detainees have spent months and even years in
detention without being tried or found guilty, languishing under worse conditions
than people convicted of crimes and sentence to prison.
Furthermore, the
socioeconomic impact of pretrial detention is profound, affecting not just the
individuals detained, but their families, communities and even the state. The
individuals are most likely to be mentally disturbed due to the experience they
had in prison or while in prison. That moment when you are caged with the four
walls of bars with no door.
There are so many issues observed during my interaction with
detainees in prison, but I will be explaining just three. First of all, there
was an issue of prison congestion. One of the contemporary issues in Nigeria
today is the management of prisons, leading to the violation of fundamental
human rights of the inmates. Many people spend more time in prison as awaiting
trial inmates (ATI) than they would have spent if found guilty. According to
Nelson Mandala, “No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its
jails “. Nigeria prison mirrors a broken society struggling vainly to reform
its miscreants. The rate of population explosion is faster than that of the
expansion in prison facilities. As a result, the prison no longer serves the
purpose of reforming offenders. Minors are locked up with hardened criminals.
Recent statistics on Prison Reform Conference held in Abuja shows that not less
than 45,000 inmates are languishing in various prisons across the country,
while 30,000 of the figure are suspects awaiting trials. The problem of
overcrowding in Nigerian prisons is caused by lack of basic facilities and poor
sanitary conditions.
Prison has been neglected for a very long time. Prison that
were built for 800 inmates are now accommodating 5,000 people. The court have a
lot to do too because cases are repeatedly adjourned. Prison officials cannot
do anything about prison population as the place only warehouse inmates brought
to them.
Secondly, there was also an issue of torture and
ill-treatment. The way and manner prisoners are being tortured and treated is
something that need to be addressed. Section 8(2) a and b of the ACJA provides that (a) a suspect shall be
accorded humane treatment, having regard to his right to the dignity of his
person and (b) not subjected to any form of torture, cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment. Before my very eyes, when carrying out an interview with a
detainee, a prisoner was being flogged with a very mighty wood. Even though the
prisoner was shouting out of pain, the prison official continued flogging him.
Just because he wanted a pen to write.
Healthcare provided for in prison are nothing to write home
about. They cannot even afford Panadol for prisoners. The sick ones are left to
fight their illness alone without drugs. I can remember vividly of one of the
inmates interviewed having wounds all over his body with water coming out of
the wound. When asked whether he has been receiving treatment, he said no. He
explained that since he came into the prison, that day was the only day he
stepped out of his sale. When one of the prison official saw me asking him
about the wounds all over his body, that was when he shouted in a harsh voice,”
Hey Mr. Man, after the interview carry yourself go clinic for here make them
treat your wound “ You can imagine if
we were not there, that man would have still be in his sale without being
attended to.
Thirdly, there is an issue of poor legal representation. Many
of the awaiting trial persons (ATPs) do not have legal or active legal
representation and some who have legal representation are unsatisfied with the
quality of service being rendered to them by their lawyers. Many of the
prisoners do not have confidence in the criminal justice system. Most of the
inmates interviewed had no lawyer and have never appeared in court. Some of
them who said they had lawyers are not satisfied with the services of the
lawyer as things are slow.
My participation in the pretrial project influenced my
attitude, behavior and perspective. At first I thought prisoners are not like
normal human beings. The idea was that they are beasts. But going to the
prison, I found out that there are normal human beings like you and me. Yes
they must have made mistakes at some point in their lives which landed them
where they are today, but that does not mean they cannot change and live a good
life. My perspective on prison was that every prisoner actually committed a
crime. But reaching the prison and inter acting with the detainees, I found out
that not everybody in the prison actually committed a crime. Some are there
because they were found at the wrong place at the right time. Others are in
prison without even being accused. While others are there because their friends
committed the crime and since the police cannot reach to such friend, the
person is arrested until the friend is found. Some are even in prison today
because they were just at the scene of the crime.
One of the most important thing I learnt from my experience
was to be mindful of the kind of friends I have or yet to have. Some of our
friends are born criminals and can land us into trouble if we are not careful.
Also, I learned to be careful of the places I go, so as to avoid being
arrested. At the scene of a crime, the last thing the police will hear is
that,” I am just a passerby, I came to collect something from a friend, or I
never knew these people were criminals“.
Having observed the issues during the interaction, it pained
me to see innocent people held up in prison. That person might be the only one
all members of the families are looking up to. Tell me, when such person is in
prison, how will the family cope? Seeing mothers detained and denied access to
justice, I kept wondering, how will her children feel waking up and going to
bed without a mother’s love, Oh God it hurts. At some point during the
conversation with detainees I look left, right, up, and down, all I could see
was detainees who hope to leave the prison. The life outside the prison is what
they hope for. People being held up for months and years just for a minor crime
where bail is available. It is good to remind the government of the provision
of section 35(4) & (5) of the
1999 constitution (as amended), which also frown at prolonged pretrial
detention.
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