My name is Nnaji Samuel, a 500 level clinician
from the University of Abuja Law Clinic and the pre-trial detainee programme
was really worthwhile for me. It defined a whole lot of things for me in this
stage of my life. I had the opportunity of interacting with different
categories of people that I never thought I would interact with – pre-trial
detainees (in Suleja Prison), prosecutors, pro-bono legal practitioners from
the Nigerian Bar Association, members of the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria
(LACON) and obviously my colleagues in the clinic.
What was most significant for me was my second
meeting with a particular prosecutor (name withheld), he was handling the case
of one of the beneficiary pre-trial detainee, Frank (original name withheld)
that we assisted with legal services. On that fateful day, the 2nd
of July, 2018 he had given me an appointment to come to Shari’ah Court, Field
Base, Suleja. When I arrived there I met with him and we had a long discussion
on the possibility of Frank being released. He told me he would release Frank
once we are able to gather a reasonable amount of money for some purposes which
he highlighted for me. He said the Khadi would impose a fine on the accused
which he (prosecutor) would mitigate to at most N5000, the policemen who will
bring the accused to court would be given something and lastly, whatever we
deemed good to give him, he was ready to accept. The whole thing looked so fake
to me considering the little knowledge of law I have, and out of suspicion I
asked him if N10,000 would suffice and he said it would be enough. I
appreciated his supposed ‘good gestures’ and told him I would report the
outcome of our meeting to my coordinator and get back to him. He wanted me to
have his account number so that it would be easier for me to pay in the money
into his account instead of coming down to Suleja again. In response I told him
that I didn’t mind coming at all and besides we would like to have a word or
two with the accused when he is released and take some photographs with him for
the records. I thanked him and we parted ways, I immediately got a commercial
motorcyclist and asked to be taken to the main motor park where I could get a
cab to Gwagwalada. I already had it in
mind that I was going to return to the court once the prosecutor lost sight of
me. When I was sure of that I told the ‘bike’ man to turn back and take me into
the court premises.
I accosted one of the Registrars and told him
that I was in court last Thursday for Frank but could not get the next
adjourned date due to my language deficiency and time constraint. He told me
the accused person was discharged that day, but I wanted to be sure about that
so he opened the Register and confirmed that for me. Having obtained the
information I needed I left the court. By the time I saw the prosecutor coming
into the court premises, he signaled me to stop but I told the ‘bike’ man to
speed off.
I needed to confirm whether the accused was
still in remand or released actually, so I headed to Suleja Prison. When I got
there, the Prison Welfare Officer appointed one of the junior officers to
assist me in finding out the where about of Frank. They confirmed to me that he
has been discharged. I was so elated, and I appreciated the Welfare Officer.
The entire scenario was the most significant
for me because it exposed to me the degree of rot we have in the criminal
justice system, and how the stakeholders viz a viz the prosecutor and some
court registrars collude to perpetrate injustice and defraud unsuspecting
ignorant citizens they are meant to protect.
This brings out the issue of corruption and
decay in the court system and how unethical some lawyers could be in handling
their ‘lawyering’ functions.
For me there was a huge lesson to learn from
the whole incidence. There is great task ahead the new upcoming socially
responsible and ethical lawyers. The level of rot and corruption is too high
that it has dampened the confidence of the common man in the whole justice
system. So much has to be done to sanitize the profession and regain this lost
confidence. However, I still feel there is good hope. I’m really optimistic.
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