My name is Julius Oluchi, a 400 level
clinician from the University of Abuja Law Clinic.
Early
this year, the university of Abuja Law Clinic kick started a project titled EXPANDING ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR PRETRIAL DETAINEES supported by NULAI & OSIWA. The aim of this
project is to reduce the alarming rate of pretrial detainees in the prisons, which
will in turn decongest the population in Nigerian prisons. While conducting a
research on the population of the prisoners in Nigeria on the 11th
June 2018, I found out that the total population of prisoners where 72,390 out
of which 49,409 are still awaiting trial. This means either they have not been
to court or their case is still in court. This makes it 68% of prison inmates who
are still awaiting trial. All Clinicians were involved in the project and to
that effect, trainings were conducted and advocacy visits were made. We were
divided into teams and this teams were subdivided into smaller teams for the
purpose of the visit to Suleja and Kuje prisons. My Team (team alpha) was
opportuned to visit the Suleja prisons and we were able to interview 8 inmates.
We also followed up on this cases. Thankfully, some of the pretrial detainees
have received access to justice while some are still awaiting trial.
I
had the opportunity of visiting the prison and I also went for an advocacy
visit to the Nigerian Prison service, Abuja. My visit there made me realize a
lot of things. When these matters are presented on a national landscape, they
may appear a bit tolerable but when placed within the framework of the
operations of a state command, the grim picture appears in full. Take the FCT
for instance, the prisons serving the FCT are Kuje, Suleja, keffi and Dukpa
Farm Centre. .Kuje prisons has a capacity of 560 but with a population of 800
inmates out of which 560 (70%) are awaiting trial, Suleja prisons has a
capacity of 250 inmates now has a population of 415 inmates out of which 249
(60%) are awaiting trial. I found out that the Nigerian prison has been overtly
populated most especially by pretrial detainees or awaiting trial.
My visit to the Nigerian Prison Service
also revealed that most times the congested prison is not the fault of the
prison staffs but the police officers. The fact that the police pay no
attention to laws governing the arrest and detention of citizens contributes to
the congestion of prisons. If the police officers are to be watched and
supervised the issues inherent in the Nigerian criminal justice system will be
greatly reduced.
In the course of my research and
discussions with the director of the Nigerian Prison Service (NPS) I found out
that at the end of the 2016, the fleet capacity of the NPS stood at just 268
vehicles in various stages of disrepair and dysfunction. These vehicles are
supposed to cater for the prisoners going to about 5,022 courts scattered all
over the 774 local government areas of the country. These 268 vehicles in the
prisons inventory include those burnt in the war against insurgents in the
north-eastern part of the country and quite a sizeable number rendered
unserviceable by the lack of funding that has characterized prisons
administration for a very long time. The dearth of escort’s duty vehicles in
the prisons has surely affected the ability of remand prisoners to attend
courts because 268 vehicles cannot service the 1,121 courts operating in the
774 LGA’s of the country. It changed my mind set towards the prison staff and
made me channel my passion towards making sure that the Nigerian Prison system
have a rethink on how things are done.
One of the pre-trail detainee we
interviewed in prison, was accused having possession of stolen goods, according
to him, he was confused as to what exactly happened because the goods in
question was not in possession of the detainee.
Not to forget the fact that his statement was written by the police
officers which contradicts section 35 of the Nigerian constitution. I felt
saddened by the fact that he was unaware and it was used against him.
Another touching story is that of a man
who decided to be a good Samaritan after returning stolen goods that were found
in his house to the vigilante, instead of his good works to be applauded he was
arrested for burglary and house breaking and was kept in the police detention
cell for more than a month before the matter was taken to court and then he was
sent to prison. All these were done without a lawyer to plead his case or a
surety to bail him out not to forget that the conditions to bail are most times
not conducive.
Seeing this young men of dreams and
visions waste away through no fault of theirs saddened me greatly.
I won’t say my experience was a
beautiful one but it gave me a different mind- set towards life. I remember crying when I came back. Having a
lot of dreams about the visit to the prison. One of the encounters I had with
prisoners made me understand that ignorance is more expensive than education. Not
being aware of your rights and privileges can strip you of your freedom!
During the pre-trial project I was able
to bond well with my team mates, I got to understand a lot about them, we
learnt from the 500level students, we watched videos on client counseling
interviewing that gave us insight on how to interview the detainees in prison.
From those experiences I understood that most times even if you are overwhelmed
with emotions, your client should not know because they would want to ride on
that.
My participation in this project gave me
a better insight about life, it made me aware of the fact that everyone needs
to be aware of their rights, duties and obligations. The ACJA should be made
available to everyone, most especially individuals in Abuja, and also made
available in major languages spoken in Nigerian. With this, we will be able to
coup out the high rate of ignorance in the society. As Martin Luther King Jnr
would say “nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance
and conscientious stupidity”. It also made me understand that not all
individuals in the prison are prisoners and not all of them committed a crime,
as evident in the statistics given above showing that 68% of prison inmates in
Nigeria are pretrial detainees, and also to be more passionate about people
owing to the fact that a lot of people need to be aware and not just having the
passion but working towards achieving it.
My attitude towards life in general
changed, owing to the fact that I became more passionate, observant, aware and
empathic towards people in general. Knowing fully well that most people are not
ignorant of the law made available to them.
My participation on this project equally
brought to light some hidden attributes that I have and it made me more aware
of the pressing issues that affect the society in general. Issues like Torture
that have been provided in several instrument including Anti-Torture act 2017 and
section 8 of the ACJA which states that,
- A suspect shall
- Be accorded humane treatment, having regards to his rights to the dignity of his person; and
- Not be subjected to any form of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
I
also learnt that section 7 of the ACJA prohibits arrest in lieu by providing
that‘a
person shall not be arrested in place of a suspect’ even though the
constant practice has been that where the police are unable to find the real
suspect, they resort to taking the relative/friends of such suspect, and many
more.
This experience was not just a life
changing one but one that has made a mark in my heart, giving me a new passion
and drive to work for the fulfillment of my passion.
I feel like I need to do something, not
just anything but to make a change, a massive change. In the words of Socrates ‘The
secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but
on building the new.’ Though a
lot of things are happening to our criminal justice system, I still have hope
that with reorientation of our value system there will be positive change,
things can still be done and steps can be taking to improve the criminal
justice system.
Finally, re-echoing the words of
Frederick Douglass; where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance
prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized
conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will
be safe. We all need to ensure
that justice is not denied, poverty is not enforced, ignorance does not prevail
so that persons and properties will be safe in the society.
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