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For Nigerians to
surmount the various challenges facing the country, God’s help and the
support of men and women of goodwill will be required, Acting President
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan said in Abuja on Sunday.

Speaking during the
10th Anniversary Dinner and Award night celebration of the Aso Villa
Chapel in the State House, Abuja, Mr. Jonathan said the time has come
for Nigerians to come together in prayers to help the present
administration tackle urgent matters affecting the country – especially
the issue of good governance, peaceful co-existence, credible electoral
system and combating corruption.

We need God

“I strongly believe
that human effort alone cannot translate our goals and aspirations into
concrete realities,” Mr. Jonathan said.

He expressed
appreciation to the former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, for being in
the vanguard of the realisation of a chapel at the Villa where prayers
could be offered for Nigerian leaders.

Making reference to
Apostle Paul in the scriptures, 1 Cor.3 V 6, he said, “I planted the
seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.”

Mr. Jonathan said Mr. Obasanjo planted the seed, many watered it and God has blessed it.

Mr. Obasanjo, in an
emotion-laden voice, went down memory lane on how the chapel was built
and said he was tremendously blessed and inspired while attending
services there during his tenure.

Honoured men

The former
president was honoured at the occasion for his effort towards the
building of the villa. Also honoured at the occasion were seven
governors, including Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, Rotimi Amechi
of Rivers state, Ikedi Ohakim of Imo state, and Alao Akala of Oyo
State. Others are Martins Elechi of Ebonyi, Theodore Orji of Abia and
Gabriel Suswan of Benue.

Other recipients of
awards were the pioneer chaplain of the chapel, Yusufu Obaje; William
Okoye and Jerry Gana. John Onaiyekan also received an award on behalf
of the Christian Association of Nigeria, along with Enoch Adeboye of
the Redeemed Christian Church of God.

A book, “THE NATIONAL ALTAR,” which is a compendium of the history and activities of the chapel, was presented at the occasion.

Nigeria’s former military president, Ibrahim
Babangida, has advised other parties in the country not to imitate the
measures adopted by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in handling
disagreements among members.

Mr. Babangida, who spoke to aviation correspondents
at the presidential wing of the Murtala Mohammed Airport (MMA), Lagos,
on Sunday, disclosed that the ongoing dispute among the nation’s ruling
party officials should be addressed according to the laid down dictates
of the party.

“The truth is, I do hope that they should be able to
resolve it by playing by the rules. If they allow it to escalate, they
would be showing bad examples and other parties should not emulate the
PDP,” he said. “Going after party officials and this and that is not
the solution to the problem.”

Maintaining that the right procedures be adopted when
suspending members, the former president disclosed that party officials
can only be removed after an agreement in a conference.

“Due process must be followed in handling issues.
Therefore, if some executives were brought in by the national party
convention, the only people who could remove them are the convention
and not any other arrangement,” he said.

Last week, the PDP announced the indefinite
suspension of 19 members, which included key officers like Peter Odili
and Achike Udennwa, former governors of Rivers and Imo States; Ken
Nnamani and Adolphus Wabara, former Senate Presidents; Aminu Bello
Masari, former Speaker of the House of Representative; among others.

A statement signed by the National Secretary of the
party, Abubakar Kuwa Baraje, disclosed that “their case has been
referred to the National Disciplinary Committee for further necessary
action.” Meanwhile, Mr. Babangida implored the party to give room for
free dialogue, adding that political parties globally are faced with
similar problems.

“The leaders of the party should allow internal
democracy to flourish. It is not news, this thing is all over the
world. Political parties do have some of these problems but the ability
to resolve it internally is what they should be preaching now, not
party,” he said.

The former General, however, called on party
officials to desist from condemning the head of the PDP, adding that
the recommended procedures must be adhered to when handling divides
among members.

“They should allow internal defence, internal
democracy, and people should express their views and not to fault the
chairman,” he said. “If the chairman has done something wrong, the
process must be followed and that is why it is called a political
party.”

“They shouldn’t behave like the military,” he added, laughing.

Atiku leaves without a word

While the interview with the former president was
going on, Nigeria’s former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, arrived the
airport and headed straight for his private jet parked on the tarmac,
without saying a word neither to the ex-military leader or to reporters.

Though approached by reporters to get his comment,
Mr. Atiku, who appeared to be in a hurry, could not be reached, as his
officers guarded him to his aircraft.

The National Drug
Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on Sunday disclosed that it will charge
the couple that allegedly used their six-year-old twins in smuggling
cocaine at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), for money
laundering.

The agency
disclosed that its latest findings on the duo, Jimoh Bashir and Jimoh
Milikat, revealed that the couple has assets valued at over ₦50
million, adding that this discovery contradicts the couple’s claim of
financial difficulty that resulted in their inability to afford their
children’s school fees.

“The assets include
two luxury houses in Lekki, Lagos, and three posh cars,” said Mitchell
Ofoyeju, spokesperson for the agency. “Preliminary investigation has
also revealed that the couple, believed to be professional couriers,
had travelled to London with the twins 17 times since 2006, under the
guise of holiday or visit.” Ahmadu Giade, chief executive of the
anti-drug outfit, disclosed that the agency will impound all assets
traced to the couple, that are believed to have been acquired with
illicit drug proceeds.

Assuring that he
will probe further into the matter, Mr. Giade disclosed that the agency
will see to it that they uncover any other asset that is yet to be
discovered.

“We have
successfully traced houses and some vehicles belonging to the couple,”
he said. “Given the competence of the team of investigators, we hope to
uncover more assets.”

Background

Early this month,
the agency announced the arrest of the family of four as they were
about boarding an Arik Air flight to London, Heathrow, after white
substances detected to be cocaine were found in their possession.

The 46-year-old
father was alleged to have connived with his wife in concealing 350g of
cocaine each, in the diaper of their six-year-old twins. The wife also
concealed 3.35kg in her bra and underwear, bringing the total quantity
of cocaine to 4.05kg.

Victoria Egbase,
director of assets and financial investigations, NDLEA, disclosed that
the recovered properties include three cars – Toyota Matrix, Lexus and
Mazda; two three bedroom flats; and another building where they operate
a supermarket at Lekki, Lagos.

The agency,
however, disclosed that the couple will face multiple charges because
of the nature of their case, stressing that besides being the first
family to be nabbed over cocaine trafficking in the country, they are
also the first to use their twins in smuggling cocaine.

“The likely charges
hanging on their necks include unlawful possession and exportation of
4.05kg of cocaine, money laundering as well as child abuse for using
their six-year-old twins in cocaine smuggling,” said Mr. Ofoyeju.

The agency’s
Murtala Mohammed International Airport commander, Hamza Umar, disclosed
that investigation into the case is at an advanced stage and that other
accomplices shall be made to face the wrath of the law.

“The case is under investigation and we have made significant
progress,” he said. “All the people involved shall be brought to book.”

The Edo State
chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the leadership of the
state House of Assembly yesterday differed over the reception of the
Edo State assembly’s speaker at the recently concluded Speakers
Conference held in Makurdi, Benue State.

A statement
yesterday by the PDP’s state director of publicity and strategy,
Okharedia Ihimekpen, commended the Speakers’ Forum for allegedly
sending out of the conference, Bright Omokhodion, Speaker of Edo State
House of Assembly on the ground that he was not the duly recognized
speaker of the state House of Assembly.

The statement said
since he was not recognised by the Speakers’ Conference, Mr. Omokhodion
should stop parading himself as the speaker.

“Bright Omokhodion,
you will recall, forcibly and with the tacit support and script written
by the AC led government but with less than the constitutional
two-third necessary tried to take over the speakership of the of the
Edo State House of Assembly,” the statement said. “The state assembly
has a speaker and that is the person of Zakawanu Garuba”.

Swift rebuttal

But in a swift
reaction yesterday, the senior special assistant (media) to Mr.
Omokhodion, Ralph Okhiria, denied the allegations that Mr Omokhodion
was not allowed into the conference as Edo State Speaker.

He said his boss
was only told not to be signatory to the communiqué, since issues
relating to his emergence as Speaker are still in court.

“All they have said
is not true,” he said. “First, we got our invitation card, we got there
and we were given accommodation, we were accredited and attended the
opening ceremony. The Speaker went with two other lawmakers, the
Majority Leader; Philip Shaibu and Etiosa Ogbewei who all participated
in deliberations.

“How could they
have said that when the same organisers even relocated the Speaker and
the lawmakers to another hotel when they complained that where they
were lodged was not good enough. The delegates were part of the team
that visited the governor, Gabriel Suswam and they were at the
entourage when the went on inspection of projects on two occasions. It
was the drafting of the communiqué that the PDP dominated conferences
said the Speaker should be excused not to sign the communiqué because
of the cases in court and this they said with sincere apologies asd
they said they don’t want to be seen as being involved in contempt of
court.”

Mr. Okhiria said the PDP statement is part of the plans of the
opposition party to continue to deceive the people “after they have
lost out in the state.”

Bodies of scores of
newborn babies and adults are to be subjected to mass burial by the
University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Benin City, Edo State,
the federal tertiary institution’s management said at the weekend.

The Senior Public
Relations Officer of the institution, Ibitoye Kehinde, said 186 dead
babies and 40 adults in the hospital morgue will be disposed of, if
they remain unclaimed in two weeks’ time.

The unclaimed
bodies reportedly came to light as the hospital management was taking
stock of patients who have disappeared from its wards, leaving huge
medical bills unpaid. The patients allegedly absconded during a recent
strike by medical staff. The strike had been called to protest the
recent kidnap of UBTH’s Chief Medical Director, Michael Ibadim.

No fewer than 25
patients, earlier discharged but who could not leave because of unpaid
bills, were said to have left their hospital beds during the strike.
The hospital’s loss in unpaid bills is said to run into millions of
naira.

NEXT investigations
revealed that one escaped patient, Okereke Clifford, 32, had been on
admission on Ward A5 of the UBTH, for diabetes (Type IDM), and was
discharged close to two months before he went missing on April 14.
Clifford is believed to have left behind a medical bill of about N120,
000.

The consultant in charge of the escapee patient, K.P Kubujinje, was not available for comment at the time of going to press.

However, experts
say that Mr Clifford’s medical condition, as with many other escapee
patients, is terminal. It is doubtful whether such patients can afford
the medications to manage their illnesses.

Meanwhile, 120 of
the remains of dead infants went unclaimed at the first generation
varsity teaching hospital mortuary in the last quarter of the year
ended 2009, while another 68 who died between January and March 2010
are also yet to be claimed.

A breakdown of
recent records of unclaimed corpses of babies, include: one stillbirth,
25 who died at one-day-old; and 26 that lost their fight for life
within one week. Eighteen others died within two weeks. Also unclaimed
is the body of a 15-year-old that died after a brief illness.

Arrived without identification

About 40 corpses
are of adults said to have been brought to the UBTH by the Federal Road
Safety Commission (FRSC), the police, Non-Governmental Organizations
(NGOs) and public spirited individuals. Many of these arrived at the
hospital without proper identification and have been at the morgue for
great lengths of time.

“The hospital will be left with no other option than to dispose of
the corpses en-mass and unsung [in] any way the hospital management
deems fit,” Mrs Kehinde said. “It is a regular exercise of the hospital
carried out quarterly, as most of the unclaimed bodies are unknown
accident victims deposited by security agents or by the Benin-based
Save Accident Victims Association (SAVAN), an NGO that caters for the
welfare of accident victims at expressways.”

Nigerians displaced
from Bakassi following an agreement between Nigeria and Cameroon to
return the peninsula to the latter, took to the streets of Calabar at
the weekend to protest their year-long neglect.

Numbering over 70,
they commandeered the Cross River State government owned Metro Blue Bus
from New Bakassi Local Government Area to convey them to Calabar, about
40 kilometers away. There mission was to present a petition to the
state governor, Liyel Imoke over their plight.

The scared driver
dropped them at the Etta Agbor Roundabout and they found their way on
foot to the Governor’s Office, some three kilometers away. Afterwards,
they hoped to return to the same roundabout, hoping to jump into
another bus back home free of charge.

These people defied
the scorching sun to invade the governor’s office, holding everyone at
the gate to ransom. With placards to give voice to their anger, the men
and women chanted solidarity and war songs which attracted the
attention of senior government officials.

They came with eyes
downcast. Silently edging through the mangrove forest of Cross River
South from the Ikang border, the displaced persons looked haggard; with
some hobbling on crutches as they arrived the governor’s office looking
quite hungry. This poor appearance was a convincing evidence of their
untold hardship.

Some in rags,
staggered into the main entrance to this seat of power waiting for the
governor to address them. Nursing mothers came along with kids; some
covered with sores, many of them naked, stumbling along at their
parent’s heels and crying of thirst.

Parade of zombies

It was like a
parade of zombies. For those who witnessed the macabre march, it was an
unforgettable reminder of what some Nigerians have been forced to pass
through. Most of the refugees were clad in black, appropriately
indicating the horrors they had passed through. Hunger, poverty,
idleness, high cost of living, lack of water, accommodation and health
facilities are some of the daily realities the Bakassi returnees said
they had to face. They said they decided to see the state governor for
first hand information on why they have been abandoned by the federal
government.

Leader of the
demonstrators, Innocent Asuquo told Bassey Okim, the state’s security
adviser who represented Mr Imoke, that since they were forced out of
their ancestral homes at Abana, Atabong,

Archibong Town,
Amoto and other creek communities in the aftermath of the formal
handover of the peninsula to the Republic of Cameroon, they have become
refugees in the new local government area.

“We have no food to
eat, nowhere to fish since we are fishermen, no roof to sleep under,”
Mr Asuquo said. “We have been abandoned and forgotten at the camp where
we were brought into in 2008. Our children are no more schooling for
want of schools even as there is no health institution to readily
attend to our health needs.

We have been
patiently waiting for government to come to our aid. Now we have ran
out of patience. Let Nigerian government tell us what sin we’ve
committed. We were advised to come here. Now that we’re here, nobody
cares about us again. The houses built to resettle us are too few.

Secondly, there is
no water in them for domestic use. We trek many kilometers to fetch
water from streams. Because of this suffering, some have died.

We have called on
government repeatedly to resettle us on a river bank to enable us
continue with our fishing occupation to no avail. We only hear of plans
for such a resettlement. Nothing concrete is on the card yet. Please,
let government stop this inhuman treatment being meted out to us. We
did not tell the Nigerian government to handover our territory to
Cameroon.”

Threat of revolt

They vowed to
revolt violently if government continues to be nonchalant towards them,
stressing that because they have been quiet for almost two years now,
government thinks all was well. They also called on the state and
federal governments to make provisions in this year’s budget for their
rehabilitation before things get out of hand.

Some of the placards carried by the protesters read:

Bakassi returnees
no water; Bakassi returnees have become refugees in Nigeria; No food
for Bakassi returnees; No employment for Bakassi returnees; Government
give us our right; We are for peace.

We lost all our belongings to Cameroon gendarmes who chased us out; We are Nigerians too.”

Mr. Okim, who addressed the restive Bakassi natives, appealed to them to be more patient as government was working on their welfare.

“Mr Imoke would
have personally granted you audience if he had not travelled to Abuja
on official duties,” he said, adding that it would have been better if
they had written down their grievances and presented them to the
government rather than mobilise in large numbers to Calabar.

Mr Okim said Obioma
Liyel Imoke, wife of the state governor, had, last year, donated food
items to them and promised to let her extend another hand of
benevolence to them in view of the acute food shortage experienced in
the crowded camp.

“On return from
Abuja, the governor will attend to your demands without delay as he has
been discussing with the federal government over your plight,” Mr Okim
said, just as he promised to visit their camp to see things for himself
before the governor returns to know what line of action to take.

The Rivers State government has revealed plans to downsize its workforce for efficiency in the system.

The state governor,
Chibuike Amaechi, who disclosed this in Port Harcourt on Friday during
an interactive session with civil servants, said that the system is
over populated and has no clear definition of schedule of duty.

The governor said
most civil servants in the state are redundant in their various places
of work “and end up roaming about during official hours.”

He pointed out that
modalities would be worked out with the labour unions to determine how
to actualise the plan to prune down the workforce.

“I must say that it
is worrisome to see that state civil service has a workforce of more
than 50,000, some of whom have no specific duties to perform,” he said.
“They only collect salaries at the end of the month; it is therefore
necessary to maintain only an effective number of staff.”

He directed the
Head of Service and the department handling the automated salary system
to ensure that only genuine workers are paid salaries.

Mr. Amaechi also used the forum to state that promotion in the state civil service would henceforth be based on merit.

He advised the
workers to update themselves through available training opportunities
in order to meet up with the changing trend in the service.

“The civil service is the engine room of government; its role is indeed vital to the success of any administration,” he said.

The All Nigeria
Peoples Party National Secretary, Sa’idu Kumo, on Friday, chided
politicians for forming a mega party with the sole aim of defeating the
ruling People’s Democratic Party in 2011.

Mr. Kumo said that
the activities of the mega party had been more of “a political talk
show” that could not achieve the aim for which the group was formed.

He said that what the people needed to do to get PDP out of power was a well-defined and people-oriented political ideology.

“The problem with this country is that political parties are formed based on interest, and not ideology,” he said.

He said the ANPP
remained a vibrant opposition party that would not participate in any
mega party project, which, he said, would not succeed in removing the
PDP from government.

He appealed to
Nigerians to imbibe the culture of political tolerance and ideology to
save the country’s fledging democracy from total collapse.

The ANPP, he said,
had avoided open media abuse of rival political parties, and was more
interested in educating and sensitising the electorate on the need to
shun ‘money politics’ and embrace the politics of working for national
interest.

“Opposition is not all about abusing people,” he noted.

He, therefore, called on other smaller parties to join the ANPP to
build a strong opposition as “ANPP is the only strong opposition in
Nigerian politics with a standard structure to win election.”

Last week, the National Economic Council, made up of state governors and federal officials, backed the execution of close to 300 prisoners presently on death row, purportedly to reduce congestion in the jails. But human rights groups and legal activists have been quick to oppose this.

In 2009, the minister of foreign affairs, Ojo Maduekwe, told a meeting of the United Nations Universal (human rights) Periodic Review that Nigeria has 227 prisons with a combined capacity of 47,815 inmates. Most of the prisons are overfilled with inmates who are mostly awaiting trials.

The governors’ decision appear to be a reversion of the semi-official moratorium placed on execution of convicts – with the last official execution dating back to 2002.

Death to the people

“It was agreed that those people who have been condemned should be executed accordingly,” said Theodore Orji, governor of the southeastern state of Abia, after the meeting.

The Nigeria Death Penalty Group (NDPG) has, however, faulted the governors’ decision. The group, at the weekend, urged the state executives not to implement their decision, asking them to follow universal trends against the use of death penalty.

“The statement of the executive governor of Abia State is in no doubt a threat to the country’s unofficial moratorium,” an official of NGPG, Chino Obiagwu said.

The NDPG is a loose network of groups and individuals committed towards the abolition of the death penalty in Nigeria, convened by Legal Defence and Assistance Project.

“Nigeria has ratified several other international and regional instruments, including (the) African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) providing for the abolition of the death penalty,” the group said. “Nigeria has not officially carried out any execution for a while due to the enormous pressure from the international community and the Civil Society Organisations against the use of death penalty as a form of punishment.”

An official of the Nigerian Prisons, who spoke in Lagos, said the announced execution might not help. “A large percentage of the inmates in the prisons are merely awaiting trials, with fewer of them condemned,” he said, under condition of anonymity. “This is an indication that executing the few might not necessarily profer a solution to the state of Nigeria prisons.”

Poor prisons

The NDPG however said the major problem leading to prison congestion in Nigeria is the lack of infrastructure and inadequate funding by the government.

“Most prisons in Nigeria were built in the 1960s and the Nigerian government has neither expanded nor built additional prisons,” Mr. Obiagwu said. “Again, the state has always been the cause of delays in the prosecution of persons charged with various offences leading to prison congestion.”

It however advised the Abia State government to “set up its Advisory Council on the Prerogative of Mercy to examine the cases of the prisoners on death row and make a recommendation on the suitability of commuting their sentences.”

Last Tuesday, April 20, 2010, inmates of Kaduna Prisons went on rampage, allegedly because of reports that the convicted former head of the Christ Praying Assembly, Reverend King, had been killed.

Two prisoners were also killed in the incident, during which some prisoners attempt to escape.

The jailbreak attempt was the second in less than two months, a problem which is said to have arisen from the congestion and poor amenities of the prison.

Some prison officials also explained that the prisoners were also not happy with the poor feeding arrangement at the prison and its overcrowded cells.

A report by Amnesty International shows that the 227 prisons in Nigerian have the following in common: congestion, dirt and inadequate medical and rehabilitation facilities.

As a result, many inmates fall sick and die before they are even tried.

The Nigerian Governors’ Forum has been under severe criticism since it endorsed the decision taken last week by the Executive Council of the Federation (EXCOF) to execute inmates on death row so as to decongest prisons.

The decision has also attracted criticisms, even beyond the shore of Nigeria as Amnesty International, the global human rights campaigner, said any such step by the government at any level will be contrary to international legal commitments binding on Nigeria.

But the decision of the government to restart the execution of condemned criminals was taken as a means to easing prison congestion and reducing the overcrowding often seen inside the prisons walls.

New proposals for prison decongestion

However, the EXCOF decision may not really see the light of day now if the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), has his way with new reforms he is proposing to overhaul the system and decongest prisons.

Investigation by this correspondent has showed that Mr. Adoke wants states to build their own prisons. Also, he wants the decongestion programme to be a partnership between the Federal and state governments.

According to the Minister of the Interior, Emmanuel Iheanacho, a retired Air Force Captain who toured some prison formations in the Federal Capital City a week ago, the total prison population is about 48,000, of which over 30,000 inmates are classified as awaiting trial persons (ATPs).

Why execution won’t decongest prisons

According to the school of thought opposed to execution, the huge number of prison inmates who are awaiting trial, most of whom are too poor to afford a lawyer’s service, is the main reason to blame for prison congestion.

Findings by NEXT showed that the Legal Aid Council has only about 100 lawyers to cater for the needs of more than 30, 000 awaiting trial perosns, as against the about 870 death row inmates, including women and juveniles, currently populating Nigerian prisons.

Before now, two expert groups had been set up by the former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, to reform the prison system and deal with the problem of overcrowding in prisons. The groups, the National Study Group on Death Penalty, established in 2004, and the Presidential Commission on Reform of the Administration of Justice, established in 2007, both recommended a moratorium on executions because the criminal justice system could no longer guarantee fair trial at all time.

The recommendation resulted in the establishment of a nationwide Prisons Decongestion Programme in 2005 to reduce the number of ATPs in the 227 prisons formations and satellite prisons and improve the country’s slow criminal justice system.

Objectives of FG’s programme

FG’s prison decongestion programme seeks to address the lack of legal representation for indigent accused persons by engaging a large number of private legal practitioners, over 3000 Solicitors to undertake the defence of such persons in courts in the 36 states and the FCT.

Statistics obtained from the Ministry’s monitoring mechanism for the programme indicates that over 47,956 inmates have so far benefited from the programme.

Documents obtained at the AGF’s office showed that as at December 2009, out of the total number of 47,956 cases farmed out, a total number of 11,833 cases have been completed, 7,711 accused persons granted bail, while 28,412 cases are still pending before the various courts in the country.

Amending the Constitution to decongest prisons

Adoke’s proposals seeks to overcome the various blames for overcrowding, which include laxity in police investigation, needless court adjournments, poor state of prison facilities, and diversion of funds meant to achieve the planned reform in the past.

For example, about N8 billion was alleged to have been spent on the programme, without a commensurate profit during the time of the former AGF and Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa (SAN).

First, Mr. Adoke, who has not disclosed the financial cost of his proposals, has proposed a second stakeholders’ summit to discuss amendment which will place prison issues in the concurrent list of the Constitution, “so that states can build their own prisons.”

“This will largely help in decongesting prisons because over 70 percent of the inmates in the Federal prisons are persons accused of having violated state laws. (T)he Federal Ministry of Justice is committed to the successful implementation of this programme and will continue to partner with the private bar and other stakeholders in the criminal justice system in order to improve the state of Nigerian prisons and restore the dignity of the inmates,” Mr. Adoke added.

The AGF’s proposals to the FG include: the possibility of amending sentencing procedures in courts, the possibility of going into funding partnership between the FG and states, a comprehensive overhauling of Nigerian prisons with IT facilities for smooth access to information on inmates, restricting external solicitors to cases in areas of location to reduce logistics problems, and continuous liaison with relevant government agencies.

Others are: the possibility of the Ministry (either alone or in partnership with NGOs) undertaking to pay the fines imposed on indigent convicts, introduction of non-custodial sentences, the monitoring of counsel performance for appropriate sanctions for poor performance, increment in the programme’s budgetary outlay to cover outstanding cases, and the involvement of local and international donor institutions, even as the Ministry of Justice remains the programme coordinator.