My name is Akintola Adunoluwa, a 500 level
clinician from the University of Abuja Law Clinic. There is this heartwarming
feeling that comes from helping people. The joy that comes from knowing that
you are able to make a change. Visiting the prison, interviewing detainees and
knowing that I can actually help them gave me that beautiful feeling. This
experience gave me the opportunity to interact with detainees and I came to the
realization that a lot of people are arrested and detained without probable
cause. This is something we all hear and talk about every day, but having a
firsthand experience made me more empathic about the situation in our Nigerian
prisons.
However, the experience wasn’t without its own
challenges. One major issue was the reluctance of the prison official in
letting us interview detainees. He started by saying he was not notified of our
visit and as such made no preparations to receive us. Following the resolution
of that issue, he claimed that all the detainees had legal representation.
After much probing, he was able to get a few detainees for us to interview and
most of the cases he got us included capital offences. This limited our options
but we were still able to make the best use of what we had.
This experience left a lasting impression on
me. My entire outlook towards law and prisons in general. I realized that a lot
of inmates are actually arrested for offences they didn’t commit and know
nothing about. My entire perception of prisoners changed completely. The
project also taught me a lot of skills and values such as Client interviewing,
Team work, Discipline amongst other things. It also taught me the importance of
being a socially conscious lawyer.
At the end of the prison visit, I realized
that sometimes officials in charge of prisons and inmates are often times the
problem as they make no effort to help these inmates and frustrate the efforts
of those who actually try to help. This is a really big problem in Nigeria as
these officials are purportedly agents meant to foster the administration of
justice and not to hinder justice. At the end of the day, I’m thankful for the
opportunity to serve as a change agent in my own little way.
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