Overcrowding in different correctional centres in Nigeria has become a tenacious issue. In this database investigation, JULIANA FRANCIS questions the staggering amount of taxpayers’ money spent on awaiting trial inmates, when half of such money could have been saved by decongestion of custodial centres through adherence to the ACJL/ACJA by stakeholders in the Criminal Justice System.
A
typical ATM in custodial centre
Mr Kevin Odu, 32, has been in prison on
remand since February, 2020. He was arrested by proxy, arraigned and remanded.
On December 3, Odu spoke with our reporter from inside Kirikiri correctional
centre. The initial plan was to visit him in prison, to have one-on-one chat
with him, but the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS) was still observing
strict COVID-19 protocols compliance. Nobody is allowed to visit inmates.
Odu said: “My trouble started after I
allowed my village man to live with my wife and I. I still remembered how he
cried and begged me to allow him live with us. He said he didn’t have anywhere
else to go. We allowed him, and then neighbours started complaining of his
smoking and pilfering. They told me that whenever he didn’t have money, he
would steal people’s items to buy ‘smoke.’ One day, he stole my neighbour’s
laptop and generator and disappeared. I was arrested because police couldn’t
find him. I tried all I could to help police find him, including calling our people
in the village, but he seemed to have vanished into thin air. I was charged in
his place for stealing, arraigned and remanded.”
He was arrested on February 17, 2020 and
charged to court on February 20. He added: “I was granted bail, but my people
are not in Lagos.”
Since he couldn’t fine tune his bail
conditions, he joined the ever increasing numbers of inmates in correctional
centres on awaiting trial, otherwise known as ATM.
Odu’s predicament is a classic example
of the kind of inmates, on awaiting trial in different correctional centres in
Nigeria. Stakeholders, especially lawyers, argue that someone with a case like
Odu shouldn’t be on remand. He should have been given alternative punishment
and allowed out of the prison.
Many inmates, like Odu, were arrested by
proxy; others raided by policemen, and still more are there over mere misdemeanors.
Many are on remand because they couldn’t meet stringent bail terms even though
their offences are minor.
Also unfortunate, are inmates with
felonious cases, who had been on ATM for years and had not been taken to
courts.
The National Chairman of Prisons and
Hospital Ministry, the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Ariyo
Popoola, who had been involved in prison ministry and reform for years, said a
shocking number of ATM had no business being in prison.
He said as more inmates were being
released through interventions of pro-bono lawyers, human rights activists and
religious bodies, more were being remanded. These inmates have to eat and some
fall sick and are taken to sickbay, where medicines are scarce. They take up
space, where there is not enough, leading to congestion. Popoola, while using
the Lagos State Criminal Justice System as a case study for his argument, noted
that the challenges facing Lagos NCS was the same in different custodial
centres in Nigeria.
According to the federal government (FG),
it spends at least N450 per day on an inmate; now imagine that amount being
spent on 1000 ATM.
These inmates ordinarily shouldn’t be in
prison, if the relevant stakeholders had adhered to the Administration of
Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) and Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL).
Under the Act and Law, the judiciary has
been urged to embrace speedy trials and the alternative sentencing, whereby
accused persons with minor offences are sentenced to community service.
However, stakeholders in the criminal
justice system have repeatedly failed to adhere to the ACJA and ACJL.
In fact as at December 14, 2020, the
number of ATM in at least 275 custodial centres nationwide, is about 47,424 and
the money spent on them daily, using N450 as ration, is N21,340,800, which is
approximately N21.3 million. Thus money spent weekly is N149,385,600,
approximately N149.4 million.
This means that monthly, the FG of
Nigeria, spends N597,542,400, approximately N597.5 million in that year and
month, which are under review.
Now, assuming all the 47,424 inmates
were held in custody throughout the year, it means the total money spent on
them is N7,170,508,800, which is approximately N7.2 billion of Nigerian
taxpayers’ money.
However, a
His words: “Ordinarily, ATM should be
more than, but they are just that number because of the outbreak of the
COVID-19. Due to the advent of the virus, NCS has stopped admitting new inmates
indiscriminately. Before any accused is admitted into our facilities, he or she
must have gone for the COVID-19 screening and can only be admitted if they come
with negative status result. This measure has checked the usually escalating
and worrisome numbers of ATM.”
He added that the most challenging
problem for NCS right now were those dubbed, “the abandoned and forgotten ATM.”
He explained: “There are inmates on
remand, who we are worried, have been abandoned and forgotten by policemen.
These policemen are their Investigating Police Officers (IPOs). We discovered
this problem after the #EndSARS protest. Many police stations were burnt and in
the process case files were destroyed. There is ATM, who had been forgotten by
their IPOs because their case files cannot be found or had been burnt.”
Adherence
to ACJA and ACJL
According to available laws, many ATM
should not be in prison, especially if their crimes were minor. They should be
sentenced to community services after their pleas had been taken. This is under
the alternative sentencing of the ACJA and ACJL.
This is clearly underscored under Section
1 of the ACJA, which explains the purpose of the Act thus, “The purpose of this
Act is to ensure that the system of administration of criminal justice in
Nigeria promotes efficient management of criminal justice institutions, speedy
dispensation of justice, protection of the society from crime and protection of
the rights and interests of the suspect, the defendant, and the victim. To
achieve this, the law makes provision for the following: Section 396 provides
that Cases shall be heard on a day-to-day trial, Section 396(2), any objection
to the validity of the charge or information raised by the defendant shall only
be considered along with the substantive issues and a ruling thereon made at the
time of delivery of judgement, Section 382 information filed are to be assigned
to courts by the Chief Judge within 15 days and the Judge in turn, is to issue
notice of trial within 10 working days of the assignment of the information to
his court and Section 306 court would no longer hear application for stay of
execution in criminal proceedings.” This
law also applies to the ACJL.
Barrister Samuel Akpologun, said the ACJL
replaced the Criminal
Procedure Law, introducing revolutionary provisions and measures aimed at
promoting transparency, credibility, accountability and efficiency of the
criminal justice administration in Nigeria.
He noted that the aim of the ACJL and ACJA are to
achieve speedy trial of
criminal cases, commencement of trial at Magistrate courts
within 30 days and completion of trial matter within 180 days. Most
importantly, the ACJL provides Non‐Custodial Alternatives sentencing.
A Nigerian human
rights lawyer, Justus Ijeoma, who is also the Executive Director of the
International Human Rights and Equity Defense Foundation (I-REF), explained
that non custodian alternative sentencing means punishment other than
imprisonment.
He said: “When a
criminal suspect is put through trial, the trial will result into either of the
following; conviction, acquittal or dismissal. When someone is convicted, he
would be sentenced as punishment, this means punishment will be imposed on him.
One of the possible types of punishment that a court imposes upon an offender
is imprisonment.”
He further stated
that imprisonment in other words means custodian punishment or sentencing,
which is confining person, restraining movement or putting him behind bars as a
means of punishment for a criminal infraction.
He added: “Now,
because of the current global trend, where a lot of resources are being
expended to keep offenders, who had been convicted and sentenced to custodial
imprisonment, to care and fend for them is enormous and there are no enough
facilities to keep them. Custodial sentencing requires a lot of resources,
therefore there’s a trend world over, to move away from custodial sentencing to
non-custodial sentencing, which means not taking someone into the prison. There
are a lot of forms of alternative non-custodial sentencing, which includes
verbal sanctions, conditional discharges, and status penalties like denying him
or her positions of trust for certain years, restitution, where an offender is
mandated to restore what he had taken from a victim of the crime. There’s also
suspended or deferred sentencing, there are fines as means of punishment,
amongst others.”
Ugonna Ezekwem, expert
on Justice Sector Reforms, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said
Non‐Custodial
Alternatives sentencing include suspended sentences, community service,
curfews, and parole orders, amongst others.
Speedy trials and Non‐Custodial Alternatives Sentencing will not only
lead to government spending less of the taxpayers’ money on ATM, but it will
also lead to prison decongestion.
Ijeoma said: “The aim
of the ACJA and ACJL is to encourage non custodian alternative sentencing and
speedy trials. Trials are not supposed to last infinito, because justice delay
is justice deny. Therefore, when there’s a criminal allegation against someone,
it should be pursued expeditiously and ensured that the trial process is
completed timeously, so that the accused will know his fate at the earliest
possible time.”
Responding to whether
alternative sentencing and speedy trial were working in Nigeria, Ijeoma said no.
The lawyer noted that one of the major concerns, which non-custodial
alternative sentencing sought to remedy was to decongest the Nigerian
prisons.
His added: “Our
prisons are over congested. You’ll see correctional facilities built for 700
capacities, taking over 3000 inmates where can that happen? Our prisons are
still very much congested and our court lists in courts are still over
congested. Our courts, particularly trial courts, which are courts that deal in
criminal matters, are congested. One can’t say that alternative sentencing and
speedy trials are working in Nigeria. However, one can’t forget to mention that
at least there are efforts toward making sure these aspects of the criminal
justice system are being pushed to at least make it functional.”
In April 2020, the NCS,
during the announcement of the 2020 Presidential Pardon and Clemency to inmates
and ex-convicts, revealed that at least three-quarters of Nigeria’s total
prison population were inmates serving time without being sentenced. The head
of the agency back then, Ja’afaru Ahmed, said 51,983 inmates were ATM out of
the prison’s total population of 73, 726 inmates, which is about 70 per cent of
the total.
Chain reaction of flawed system
Popoola, who also introduced himself as
an ex-convict, argued that a flawed judicial system begins with the police, who
were notorious for refusing to adhere to the laws.
His words: “The law says that suspects
should be taken to court within 24 hours, but Police can keep suspects in cell
for three months, sometimes six months. I’ve seen someone detained in police
cell for two years! After detaining some of these suspects for weeks, the
police station will then transfer them to command, claiming they had
jurisdiction and again, they would be detained at command’s cell.”
The story of Mr. Raphael Ashy, 31,
captures Popoola’s argument. Ashy spent 12 months in the cell of the Special
Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Ikeja, Lagos Command, before being taken to court.
Ashy, who is presently in Kirikiri Maximum Prisons, on awaiting trial. He has
been there for six years and still insisted he committed no crime. He spoke
with the New Telegraph from prison.
His words: “I’ve spent seven years
between police cell and Kirikiri Prison for committing no crime. These days, I
pray every day to God to bring someone to rescue me out of this hell. I can’t
even begin to imagine what my aged mother has been going through all these
years.”
According to him, he was framed by some
boys residing at the Railway Station area of Ebute-Metta, Lagos State. He said
that the problem was a mere street fight, which was then suddenly turned into a
robbery case. He was transferred from Denton Police Station to SARS, where, “I
spent a year before being charged to court.”
Ashy has continued to be on awaiting
trial because he had no lawyer. It was his friend, a fellow inmate, who urged
his lawyer, to take on Ashy’s case.
Popoola also pointed out another factor,
which causes increase of ATM was the habit of the police charging suspects to
court without first duplicating case files and handing same over to the court.
He said such moves usually create frustration, not just for suspect’s family
members, but for the courts and Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Bottlenecks
in judiciary…
According to Popoola, inmates’
congestion could also be traced to DPP section, which does not have enough
staff. This was even as he mentioned that the judiciary was the leading cause
of prison congestion.
His words: “The almighty is the
judiciary, but some of the problems from that avenue, flows from the police.
The police are major witnesses in cases, but when the case is called, these
policemen will not be around. Sometimes, you’ll hear the IPO, who is in charge
of the case, has been transferred to another state. And these policemen are the
ones that are supposed to bring evidence
to court. When they are not available, the cases are adjourned and the inmates
continue to be on remand.”
There are also not enough judges and
magistrate to adjudicate over cases, said Popoola. He said these personae,
often have too many cases on their court lists, stressing that there it was
humanly impossible to expect them to hear all cases on their lists that same
day, thus they keep adjourning cases.
He said: “Some are trial cases, which
take three hours, but the most important factor is that our judges and
magistrates still write during case hearing or appearance. What is the strength
of the judge or magistrate for him or her to be able to attend to 50 cases? They’ll
end up doing the little they can. It’s at this point that the registrar will be
called to assign new dates to cases.”
Outrageous
bail condition contributes to ATM
While lampooning the court for contributing
to number of ATM, Popoola said cases like two-fighting or stealing, were often
given fine of N100, 000, whereas item stolen was N10, 000. In some stances, the
court would be asking for an employed person with three years tax payment.
He noted that there was no way a person
that stole N10, 000 phone would find such a surety. “This means the accused may
have to stay in prison for long and government will continue to feed him.”
Buttressing Popoola’s points, Ijeoma
said: “Yes, the judiciary has got a chuck of the blame. Some of the judicial
officers have over time displayed a different mind-set from the mind-set of the
law, which regulates the administration of justice. There’s need to promote
human rights as envisaged by the administration of the criminal justice. There
are also statutory issues. For instance, when a law creates an offence, it
makes a provision for the things that can be the punishment upon the conclusion
of the trial. For example, the law can provide that if one commits xyz offence,
the punishment is six months imprisonment or option of N10 fine or both. Now,
we’re trying to avoid custodian sentencing, so if a trial judge confronted with
such a situation, maybe someone had committed perjury for instance, the
punishment is six months imprisonment or option of fine of N100 in 2021. The
fine of N100 option is not an option; it’s not a fair administration of justice
given the present realities, to tell someone who had committed certain infraction
to pay a fine of N100. Everyone will begin to commit such a crime. The existing
reality has shut out the option, which will have been an alternative to
custodian sentencing. And all such options are littered all over our criminal
statues in this country. Some of our laws are pre- independent; some are post-independence , but as earlier as
the 60s, 70s, not amended till today. As a judge, if you’re confronted with
someone who had committed a particular offence, and the option is one year
imprisonment and the second option is N35 fine, the society will not allow the
judge to give alternative custodian sentencing, which in this case is a
punishment of a fine of N35. You find out that the option already provided in
the law, by virtual of existentiality realities, can no longer be applied. The
judge or magistrate does not have the leverage to say he will make it N1000.
It’s either he goes for the fine or the other punishment, which is
imprisonment.”
He said there was need for the Nigerian legislators,
the national and state assemblies to make sincere efforts at bringing the
substantive criminal laws, to be at par with the spirits of the ACJA and ACJL.
The
NCS factors…
Popoola maintains that another major
factor contributing to overcrowding in prisons were warders, who were supposed
to take inmates to courts. But these warders will often complain of
unavailability of fuel for vehicles.
Popoola said: “Inmates contribute money
to fuel vehicles in order to be taken to courts, but ordinarily, government is
supposed to fuel these vehicles. If the accused is not taken to court and his
case is called, it will be adjourned and he continues to be ATM.”
ATM
and courts’ locations
He said that the Kirikiri maximum,
medium and female prisons have inmates whose trials were on-going at the
different 28 courts scattered all over Lagos.
But the vehicles to take these inmates
to these different locations are few. The warders are then forced to look at
the greater numbers of inmates heading to a certain locations of court and take
those, leaving others for another day.
The story of Chiamaka substantiates
Popoola’s allegation. Chiamaka is presently at the Female Kirikiri custodial
centre over a case of child abuse and had been on waiting trial since 2015. The
court, where her case is being heard and her detention centres are far flung.
She said that she was not taken to court for three years.
Her words: “Yes, I had a lawyer but I
was never lucky to appear in court. I’m in Kirikiri Prison, while the court is
at Epe. Every time, before my lawyer gets to Epe, the court would have been
over. It has been quite frustrating. Epe is almost outskirt of Lagos State.”
A human rights lawyer, Pamela Okoroigwe,
of Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP), who has now taken over
Chiamaka’s case, said: “The punishment for Chiamaka’s offence is between three
to six years and Chiamaka has spent over six years in prison and that matter
had not come up for trial. She has completed the sentence without trial! We’re
tired and now thinking of going for plea bargaining, but trial has not started
and the judge refused to grant bail. That lady has being in prison for years
for a minor offence and till now, no date for trial.”
Okoroigwe also recalled another case,
“where a guy was convicted and sentenced to death in 2006, we went to Court of
Appeal in 2016 and it said, ‘I don’t agree with the former judgement, go for a
retrial.’ Do you know that since 2016, the state has refused to re-arraign this
guy and it’s now more than five years, just waiting for a retrial? He has been
in prison for over 16 years now and nothing is happening. It’s really annoying!
I got a motion for discharge, but the state is saying they don’t have that
motion. If they want to re-arraign him, they know where to find him, not to
continue to keep him in prison for nothing. If he had been given 21 years
sentence, he would have finished serving it because they have a different
calendar from ours. Take Chiamaka’s case for instance, is true that child abuse
is a crime, but let the state follow due process, but this was not followed in
Chiamaka’s case.”
Mallam AbdulFatai Oshun also tells his
prison experience. He said that he spent six years and eight months,
approximately seven years on awaiting trial over allegation of killing his
younger brother. He was later discharged and acquitted in September 2020
through the intervention of LEDAP.
Oshun experienced 49 adjournments, with
one lasting for a year and two months. Another adjournment was for six months,
others for four and three months. “The most painful is that even on the date we
were asked to come to court, we’ll get there and they’ll tell us that court was
not sitting. The accused would be returned to prison.”
Recollecting how he came to be in
prison, Oshun explained that after his father’s death, his property was shared
among the children of the two wives. His mom was the junior wife. She has three
children and he was his mom’s first child. He said that immediately he got the
property, he changed the documents ownership, but trouble started when his
older siblings, from the first wife, wanted their own property.
He left his family home to live with his
mom’s friend; from there he goes to a school, where he teaches. One day, he
received a call that his young brother had been murdered. He rushed to their
home. When he got there, he saw his elder siblings and they told the police
that he was the one that murdered his brother.
He said: “I was locked up at the SCID
for three weeks until my elder siblings came to tell me, that if I wanted the
matter to disappear, I should hand over the documents to the property. When I
tried to explain to the police, one of the policemen slapped me. I knew the
police had compromised. I told my remaining brother to go home, get the
documents from where I hid them and give
to them. But even after handing over the property, I was arraigned and
remanded.”
He said that the first six weeks in
prison was hell and he was not himself him. He hired a lawyer, but had to let
him go when he noticed the man was not performing. And then LEDAP intervened in
his case and trial started.
He said: “LEDAP wanted me to take a plea
bargaining, but I refused. I didn’t commit any crime. Inmates, who are innocent
of the crimes they were alleged, accept plea bargaining because they were tired
of being on ATM.”
Further explaining why inmates stay long
on awaiting trial, Oshun mentioned lack of enough vehicles as a major factor.
He disclosed: “Inmates pay money to fuel
the available vehicles to take them to court. The distance of court from prison
location is also another problem. Inmates are supposed to be taken to courts
Mondays to Fridays, but at Ikoyi Prison, inmates are taken to Epe court only on
Friday because of lack of enough vehicles.”
He also cited long adjournments, and
prosecutors’ search for willing witnesses to testify in their cases as
contributing factors. He said some prosecutors have been known to use four
years to look for witnesses.
He also said: “I realised something
while in prison; a large number of people on ATM are innocent people, with some
not knowing their offences. Many were raided by the police.”
Mr. Henry John, who was dismissed from
the army after his return from remand this year, buttressed Oshun’s disclosures.
John said his experience on ATM was one he couldn’t forget in a hurry.
He said that he was serving at Maiduguri
and decided to visit his soldier friend at Abuja. He was supposed to stay for
three months. One day he went to a bar for a drink and got into a fight with
four men.
He was arrested and at the police
station, one of the injured men’s brother, insisted that John must pay N50, 000
for medical bill incurred by his injured brother.
John said: “Unfortunately I my phone and
ATM card got missing during the fight. I couldn’t call anyone and didn’t have
money to pay for anything. Nobody knew where I was. When I was arraigned, the
magistrate asked me to pay N30, 000 to the complainant or go to prison.”
He was on remand until February 2021
when staff of Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA) came to
Suleija correctional centre and took interest in his case.
They aided his release and paid his
fine. They also provided him with fare to his home in Kaduna. He would later be
arrested by military police for deserting duty, detained for two weeks and
dismissed.
He said: “I was on remand for three
months and I discovered that inmates remain long on awaiting trial because many
do not have lawyers. You wouldn’t believe it that I met people who had been on
ATM for five and six years. Many are still because they simply couldn’t meet
their bail conditions. Inmates are suffering there. Take me for instance, I was
remanded because of N30, 000 and nobody bothered to contact my family or
friends.”
Popoola explained that prison vehicles
leave Kirikiri area to different courts in Lagos, with many inmates waiting to
appear before the courts.
He further stated: “This is a challenge
for the warders. For instance, there might be 300 inmates going to prison on a
particular day, and only three trucks are available, how will they do it? Some
inmates are going to high courts, others to magistrates’ courts. And then they
have to take overnight cases from different courts to prisons.”
He explained that due to such a
situation, it has been discovered that some courts end up having so much work
and accused to attend to in a day; others end up having so little.
The prison evangelist said that when all
these factors were pooled, there was no way there wouldn’t be too many ATM.
Suggesting ways out of the challenge, he
said inmates on ATM for minor offences, especially police raids, should be
given speedy trial and alternative punishments.
He added: “Bailable offences, like
two-fighting or stealing, police raids, among others, should be given minimal
bail conditions. If the government truly wants to decongest prison, it should
begin by classifying the cases and inmates. There are inmates who had been on
trial for five years; such cases should be placed in one category. The
complainant should be invited and then mediation comes in.”
Popoola also revealed that another
danger for some ATM, especially those with minor crimes, was the dangerous
consequences of incarceration. He said that those worst hit were the innocent.
He noted: “I’ve seen people raided by
police, taken to station and asked to pay for their bail, and just because the
person didn’t have the money, the police will cook up a charge against him and
then ensured the person is remanded. Some of our ‘big men,’ misuse their
powers, by conniving with police to send an innocent to be remanded in prison,
in order to ‘teach’ him a lesson. People remanded for minor crimes and come out
as tougher armed robbers.”
He noted that the solution to the
escalating increase of ATM, which indirectly is costing the FG much in feeding
and otherwise, was for the stakeholders to obey the laws.
Our reporter’s attempt to get data of
available functional vehicles nationwide and prospective numbers needed for
effective movement of ATM to courts from NCS, was abortive.
In December 2020, President of the Court
of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem condemned heavy dockets comprising
over 4,630 Appeals and 6,207 Motions pending in the Lagos Division as at December
1, 2020.
Mensem stated that there were a total of
345 appeals, comprising 289 Commercial Appeals; 10 Human Right Appeals; and 46
Criminal Appeals which were scheduled for hearing.
According to her, the 345 scheduled
Appeals for hearing represents only 8 per cent of the total number of Appeals
in Lagos Division.
Against this backdrop, the President
noted that the task ahead might appear daunting; she however assured everyone
that she was resolute in her determination to decongest the Court.
The Executive Secretary of the National
Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Tony Ojukwu Esq, noted that most of the
awaiting trial inmates in correctional centres were arrested for minor offences
like begging, hawking, loitering, failure to pay debts, among others. According
to him, many inmates had been on awaiting trial for longer than necessary,
which, he opined, was in blatant violation of their human rights as guaranteed
by the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights.
He urged concerned Nigerians interested
in the criminal justice system to fight for best practices in the
administration of criminal justice, remembering that petty offences were
products of poverty.
The Head of Community Service Unit, Directorate
of Public Prosecution, Lagos State, Ms. Shakirat Kotun, said that in 2019,
there were 2,665 offenders who were sentenced to community service. Also in
2020, there were 3,630 offenders sentenced to community service.
She stated that offenders were sentenced
for stealing, fighting, road traffic violations, street trading, and
prostitution, to mention but a few. Additionally, in 2020, due to COVID-19
pandemic, community service sentence was utilised more to avoid sending
violators to detention facilities, said Kotun.
A human rights lawyer, Gabriel
Aigbonosimuan Giwa-Amu, who is also the founder of Steven and Solomon
Foundation, a non-Governmental organisation against injustice, has been at the
forefront of reforms in Nigeria for years.
He said factors, which give rise to many
inmates being on awaiting trial harsh government policies and laws to enforce
them with a weak prosecutor will, the weak or incompetent judiciary, lack of
interest by lawyers in matters they are handling for financial gain, incessant
adjournment of matters and protracted criminal prosecution.
He stated that the effect of inmates
staying long on ATM gave birth to congestion of prisons, dissipation and waste
of public funds on maintenance of the Nigerian prisons, which was not exactly
reformatory. Also, prisoners engaging in criminal activities in prison,
creating gangs in prison, which were used outside the prison wall, and then saddling
the courts with heavy workloads.
The story of Usman Shewu, 29, an
electrical engineer graduate, underlined Giwa-Amu’s opinion that gangs were
created in prison and then become operational outside prison wall.
Shewu used to install transformer as a
contractor, but suddenly tried to install meters illegally. He was arrested and
remanded for 11 months. While on ATM, he met one Bashiru.
He narrated: “While in prison, I met
Bashiru, who promised to assist me whenever I needed help. After I returned
from remand, people no longer trusted me and many wouldn’t do business with me.
I called Bashiru and told him my situation. He asked me to wait for him that he
was on his way to Abuja. That was in October 2020. When Bashiru came to Abuja,
he gave me N20, 000 and asked me to meet him the next day at Mabuchi. When we
met, he gave me a Toyota corolla car and asked me to take the car to his friend
in Zaria.”
And that was how Bashiru initiated Shewu
into car snatching. Before his arrest on January 6, 2021, Shewu has moved 15
stolen cars between Zaria and Niger Republic.
He maintained that solution to some of
the challenges of the judiciary and ATM was for the government to ensure speedy
trials of cases.
He said: “There should be professional bailors
to act as surety for persons granted bail. When an inmate is in Custody for a
period exceeding one month, he or she should be released on bail to responsible
surety with or without an application for bail. Secondly, criminal cases that carry a maximum sentence of less than three
years, the defendant should be allowed
to go on bail on personal recognisance except he’s flight risk is proven to the
court.”
He maintained that allocations to the
Correctional Centres (Prison Yards) increases with the number of inmates in
each Centre.
He added: “Senior Correctional officers
scramble for posting to lucrative Correctional Centres. Lagos State
Correctional Centre is a lucrative posting. The more inmates are in the Yard or
Centre, the more financial allocations for food and other items. Of course,
most of these facilities do not get to the inmates. The real problem is the
judiciary, the courts. The lack of will, of the NCS to exercise the discretion
to refuse inmates, especially those terminally ill or when the prisons are
congested.”
Giving his opinion on NCS’s lack of
vehicles, Giwa-Amu said: “Until recently, vehicles and their maintenance were a
challenge. In some states it is still a
challenge. In Lagos State, my foundation, Steven and Solomon Foundation donated
vehicles to the Prisons to move inmates to Courts, but other states’
Correctional centres may not have been this lucky. Again, the FG under the
Buhari’s administration has funded the NCS very well and more vehicles had been
acquired and distributed to NCS in each state. I must confess that things
improved under the Buhari’s administration.
Numerous non-governmental organisations and churches also donated
vehicles and facilities to NCS. We, at Steven and Solomon Foundation donated an
ambulance. As for paying for fuel, the
inmates do contribute money for that. That’s the truth.”
The Lagos State Public Relations
Officer, NCS, Barrister Rotimi Oladokun, explained that reasons for many
inmates being on awaiting trial were multi-dimensional, which include many
stakeholders being involved in the administration of the criminal justice
system.
He said: “These stakeholders are a
mixture of several people. Among them is someone who arrests, investigates and
then pass those facts to court and then the prosecutor has to prosecute,
adjudicate, and the outcome may lead to the person coming to custodial centre. We
know these stakeholders, and we have been advocating that those key players in
the administration of the criminal justice system should be proactive. This is
because once the ingredients of crimes are there and they had proven it, I’m
sure there will be quick dispensation of justice.”
He noted that when a case is held in
court timeously, pleas taken and judgements passed, then stakeholders deploy more
innovative measures, these would ensure that a large segment of ATM is reduced.
This, he said, could be through the Chief Judge’s decongestion visits or
through plea bargaining initiative or the alternative dispute resolution
mechanism.
He said that the Lagos State Attorney
General had been helpful in looking into plea bargaining initiative and that the
DPP advice was produced timeously.
Reacting to allegations that NCS Lagos
State didn’t have enough vehicles to take inmates to courts, Oladokun said: “The
command has been fortunate because the Controller-General has made interventions
in providing more vehicles. Even though we have inadequacies, it’s better than
it used to be. There’s a great improvement. We take inmates to court as at when
due, based on their adjournment dates.”
He also denied allegation that inmates
fuel vehicles in order to be taken to courts. His words: “The reforms started
by the Controller-General of the NCS, Ja’afaru Ahmed, made sure that funds and
resources are provided for the running of our custodial centres. We have
custodial centres and the non-custodial service. Those that are going to
courts, fall under the ambit of the custodial centres. Resources have been made
available to convey inmates to courts, including maintenance and fuelling of
the vehicles.”
He further stated: “But if we really
want to ensure that the number of ATM reduce, then we have to know that it’s
not all offences that should be criminalised. It’s not all offences that should
go through a full adjudication process.”
The Executive Director of Rule of Law
and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), Mr. Okechukwu Nwanguma said:
“Research has found that majority of persons in prisons are persons awaiting
trial over minor or in many cases false allegations brought against them by the
police because such person refused or could not provide money for bail while in
police custody. So, maliciously, the police will charge them to court and they
are either ordered to be remanded in prison or were granted bail, unable to
fulfil their bail conditions and end up spending weeks and months or even years
in prison awaiting trial thereby compounding the crisis of prison congestion.”
Nwanguma argued that the judiciary
should become serious with issues of persons remanded in prison over minor
offences. He said that persons charged and convicted of minor offences should
not go to prison.
“They can be made to do community
service as alternative to imprisonment. This will ensure that only those
involved in serious crimes can go to prison thereby reducing prisons
population. The Police on the other hand are contributing to the problem by
preferring frivolous charges just to punish people for non-compliance with
their rampant demands for bribe,” said the human rights activist.
He said that the police should cultivate
the habit resolving minor offences through alternative dispute resolution and
other agencies like the citizens mediation centre.
He said: “However, it is usually when
suspects do not give them money for bail that they charge them to court.
Sometimes, the complainant pay money to the police and that’s where the problem
starts.”
He noted that the Chief Magistrates in
states, in fulfilment of their obligations under the Administration of Criminal
Justice Act (ACJA) 2015, and in compliance with the 2019 Practice Direction of
the Chief Justice of Nigeria on visits to police custody facilities, to embark
on inspection visits to police stations within their jurisdictions with a view
to ensuring the immediate release of detainees based on established criteria
and to decongest the cells.
He also insisted that the Attorney-
General and Minister of Justice and State Attorneys General, should initiate
steps for audit of police cells and correctional centres, including juvenile
correctional facilities, to decongest them.
Ijeoma said that the laws were not
working because of a number of factors, which were also combination of factors.
He explained: “Investigation is the core
of the criminal justice system. If investigation is not properly done, the
process of prosecution and actually administration of justice will be clogged. There
is need for robust or functional investigative department, law enforcement that
drive investigations. Before bringing a defendant to court, police should first
investigate the crime alleged and come to an unassailable conclusion that the
person is reasonable suspected to have committed the infraction being alleged.”
He also stated: “The prosecution armed
with those investigative findings can now approach the court, and it will not
be difficult for a well-trained prosecutor to lay his case before the court. But
where the investigation is faulty, there’s little or nothing the prosecution
could do. Saddling incompetent individuals or authority with the role of either
prosecution or investigation does not help the administration of the criminal
Justice system. When the administration is not speedy, it results in people
remaining in custody longer than they ought to have. There’s also the
obligation saddled on the defence lawyers, who when they know their cases are
bad, begin to employ all manner of antics to clog the wheel of progress in a
particular prosecution.”
The activist said that speedy trial also
affects the congestion of prisons. “For instance, Onitsha prison as at this
morning, (February1) has a total number of convicted inmates of 57, but ATM is
865. Invariably, it’s about 7 per cent
of convicted inmates. What are congesting our prisons are not the inmates
resulting from sentence, but inmates resulting in delay in trials. The same is
the case in almost all the prison facilities across the country. A vast
majority, at least more than 90 per cent in our prisons today, are not
convicted criminals, but rather ATM. This should bother all stakeholders.”
Retired Justice O. A. Williams said: “If
a trial delays, how will anyone be talking about sentencing or verdict? That is
simply a quantum leap. One of the things I'll say about custodial sentencing is
that it is only in our courts in Nigeria that we have lofty ideas with no plans
of implementation. If we must adhere to custodial sentencing, then we must have
a proper structure of how these things would be enforced. Therefore, you cannot
make provisions in the air without any form of enforcement, and that is the
reason, I presume, most Judges and magistrates are not complying.”
According to her, before the issue of
sentencing, there were other factors that must be recognised, which include
investigation, the trial process and the police.
She stated: “Looking at the issue of
investigation; we have to recognise that the court can only give verdict on a
matter based on the evidence presented before it. The court doesn't create its
own evidence, neither does it investigate. It's one thing to investigate a
matter and another to back it up with proper evidence. It's one thing to say
someone is guilty of a crime simply because you caught the person red-handed in
the act, but the presiding judge or magistrate is not in your mind to know the
facts neither can he or she give evidence on your account. The law simply puts
that before a verdict or judgement is reached, it means the matter has to be
proven beyond all reasonable doubts. When there is no investigation and proper
evidence, what is the court supposed to do? We really have a very big issue
with investigations which is already being undermined by the police; maybe it's
because they are underpaid.”
She also argued that a judge or
magistrate cannot have a confession, which doesn’t make sense. “And this is the
reason the ACJL made that provision of (video) recording confessions when they
are being made. But where are the infrastructures or the equipment, like video
players, to implement this particular provision?”
She continued: “My last assignment was
as a judge at the Special offences Court, and since that year 2019, the Lagos
State government provided and equipped the courts with gadgets like the use of
projectors and all that. But before that time, we never had any of those. This
was basically done particularly for the Special offences Court and not in other
criminal courts. What I'm saying is that there are no infrastructures on
ground. Therefore, we cannot come and say that judges and magistrates are
reluctant in adhering to the ACJL. There is simply no way for implementation.
Adequate provisions are not being made for implementation. We cannot just have
lofty ideas in the air and provisions that cannot be implemented. We don't have
any infrastructure, no regulations on ground for its implementation. Having
looked at it from the angle of investigation, now let’s consider the issue of
the trial. Now, in the entirety of the trial process, the police are another
problem. Just like somebody would say that there are many players involved, but
I would prefer to call them stakeholders in the justice system. People are always
talking about the Judges, lawyers but they don't talk about witnesses who don't
come to court for over one reason or the other. Nobody is talking about
witnesses who are paid before coming to court or the fact that for witnesses to
come to court, often times it is difficult for them to pay for their
transportation. There are so many things involved. There is no witness
protection in Nigeria and so, people are often afraid to testify. It’s
basically an implementation and infrastructural problem rather than pointing it
to a particular stakeholder. There are so many things involved.”
Speaking on how police transfers affect
and delay court proceedings, Williams said: “Imagine a situation where a police
officer, who investigated a case and is already testifying in court, gets
transferred to a new station or state entirely. Now the court gives a date for
the police officer to complete his testimony, only to be informed that the
officer (witness) has been transferred outside that jurisdiction. Meanwhile,
getting that officer to come back to court becomes a huge challenge because
most times, his colleagues cannot even give a precise detail of his whereabouts
or newly assigned post. That police officer's absence automatically stalls the
trial. What I'm saying is that judges and lawyers cannot always be the cause of
delayed trials. I'm not saying this to exclude them, but then, if there is a
bad judge and there is a good system, then that judge would be immediately
exposed and dealt with. But we cannot hide other problems that we have, that
would only compound it.”
The communications officer, PRAWA,
Michael Iseyare, explained that in a prison survey conducted by PRAWA, it was
discovered that ATM make up for 70 percent of the total custodial center
population.
Iseyare said: “The truth is a large
number of these persons are most times in custody for petty offences which vary
from hawking to begging, and even disobedience to parents amongst others. The
effect of this is these ATPs (ATM) might get indoctrinated, become even more
hardened and in turn be a bane to society.”
He stated that the signing into law of
the correctional service act by the president on the 14 of August 2019 which
PRAWA in no small measure played a lead role in its actualization, gave birth
to a new dawn in the security and justice sector in the form of the
non-custodial measures.
He said: “The non-custodial aspect of
the correctional service Act of 2019 in section 42 provides for community
service which would mean offenders wouldn’t need to be remanded in prison
custody, but would be made to render service to the community by way of
community service as directed by the courts. This would aid in decongesting and
preventing minor offenders from adding to the already over stretched custodial
center population. Now imagine how many persons would have been sent into
custody for breaching the COVID-19 guidelines during the peak of the pandemic.
To give an idea, the FCT recorded twenty four thousand plus cases of breaching
of COVID-19 directives and these cases were recorded at the various mobile
courts in 2020.”
According to Iseyare, PRAWA has been
doing its part in training of correctional officers across the federation on
the dictates of act as well making sure global human rights standards and
correctional best practices are upheld by the service. PRAWA also is active in
the decongestion of the custodial centers as she has spearheaded the release of
inmates in various custodial facilities across Nigeria.
This reporting is funded by the Civic Media Lab,
under its Criminal Justice Reporting Fellowship, with support from MacArthur
Foundation.
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