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A group of 18 persons is currently being held by
the police in Imo State, on an allegation of plotting to kill — by
stoning — former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, and Imo State governor,
Ikedi Ohakim.

Prosecutors say the accused, on March 31 this year,
pelted a convoy conveying the two politicians with sachets of pure
water. They have all been in detention since the incident happened, and
have been charged to court for attempted murder, which carries a maximum
sentence of life imprisonment.

It beggars belief that persons accused of pelting a
governor’s convoy with sachets of pure water would be taken to court on
a charge that could earn them life imprisonment. But what further
worsens this particular case is that one of the accused, Precious
Efurueze, is only 13 years old and, therefore, a “child” in the eyes of
the law.

In September 2003, President Obasanjo signed the
Child Rights Act (CRA) into law. It was a revolutionary piece of
legislation which sought to convert into law, the principles and
guidelines espoused by the United Nations and other international
bodies. According to UNICEF, it “domesticates the obligations of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child and consolidates all laws relating
to children into one single legislation”.

Section 221 of the Act states unambiguously that:
“No child shall be ordered to be — (a) imprisoned; or (b) subjected to
corporal punishment; or (c) subjected to the death penalty or have the
death penalty recorded against him.”

The Act also makes provisions for the establishment
of “children correctional centres” where “child offenders may be
detained and given such training and instructions as will be conducive
to their formation and re-socialisation, and the removal or reduction,
in term, of their tendency to commit anti-social acts and such other
acts which violate the criminal law.”

But as with many things Nigerian, our penal system
continues to act in ignorance, or defiance, of the Act. Imo State, where
Master Efurueze is being charged, is one of the 24 Nigerian states
whose legislative houses have passed the Act. A pre-CRA study by the
Constitutional Rights Project found evidence that Nigerian children were
regularly detained in police stations and prisons, that “only a small
percentage of child offenders had committed serious offences” and that
“a large proportion of children were not legally represented during
their trials”.

Now, years after the passage of the CRA, not much
has changed. A 2008 Amnesty International Report on Nigeria’s prison
system throws up damning revelations:

“In many of the prisons visited by Amnesty
International, minors shared large dormitories with adults. Most were
around 16 or 17 years old; some were even younger. In Kuje prison, the
Amnesty International delegates spoke with children as young as 11 and
12. Reports suggest that these children were tortured while in police
custody.”

As if it was not bad enough that Efurueze had been
in custody since the incident, last Wednesday, a magistrate turned down
an application for bail for all the accused, without making an exception
for the minor.

Her decision to invoke a “my hands are tied; this
is a case of felony” excuse for her decision, is disingenuous, and
reveals a disgraceful ignorance of the law. Refusing bail to a minor,
especially considering what the minor in question has been accused of,
and causing him to be detained alongside adults, constitutes a flagrant
disregard of the provisions of the Child Rights Act, and is deserving of
condemnation.

Interestingly, this is not the first time the
magistrate in question would be involved in a questionable exercise of
legal judgement. In July 2010, a non-governmental organisation, the
Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN) publicly petitioned the
National Judicial Council over what it described as “the flagrant abuse
of judicial power and process by Chief Magistrate Victoria Isiguzo,
Presiding Magistrate, Magistrate Court 1, Owerri, Imo State.” This was
in relation to the arraignment, before Mrs Isiguzo’s court, of Ikenna
Samuelson Iwuoha, on charges of criminally defaming Governor Ohakim.

Now we are witnessing another case involving Mr Ohakim, and presided
over by the same Magistrate Isiguzo. There is also the hard-to-miss
irony that the name of Mr Obasanjo, who signed the Child Rights Act into
law, is mentioned in this case. We call on Mrs Isiguzo to take the
Child Rights Act into cognisance and proceed with immediate steps to
ensure that Efurueze is treated as the minor that he is according to the
laws of the land.