Nigeria Content Online

The
Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice,
Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), has set a July, 2010 deadline for the
decongestion of inmates in Nigeria’s 227 prisons.

Mr. Adoke handed
the deadline to the Prison Decongestion Committee he set up and
inaugurated a fortnight ago, charging it to achieve the main objective
of its establishment within the time limit.

The Minister has
also invited the Chief Justice of the Federation; the President of the
Court of Appeal; the Chief Judges of Federal and state courts; as well
as the heads of other courts; the Nigerian Bar Association; and the
Ministry of Interior, to ponder and identify the reasons for undue
delays in trial of cases, which inevitably hampers the dispensation of
justice in Nigeria.

While it was learnt
that the NBA would be attending a stakeholders’ meeting with the
Justice Minister on the urgent need for justice sector reform, of which
prisons form part of, it could not immediately be known if the same
meeting would accommodate the views and analyses of the other judicial
authorities.

According to a
document exclusively obtained from Mr. Adoke’s Special Assistant on
Media and Special Duties, Onyema Omenuwa, the Minister was aware of the
need to set free inmates who, under normal circumstances, should not
have been incarcerated.

He has, therefore,
directed the committee to “work assiduously in line with its term of
reference” and ensure that before the end of July, 2010, there is a
nationwide decongestion of prisons by about 20, 000 to 30, 000 inmates.

Partnering for more action

According to
statistics obtained from the Federal Ministry of Justice, as at
December 2009, out of 47, 956 cases being addressed under the Federal
Government’s decongestion programme, only 11, 833 cases had been
completed.

About 7, 711 other
accused persons were granted bail, while 28, 412 cases of others are
undergoing trials in the various courts in the country, in spite of the
fact that it allegedly gulped not less than N8 billion.

Committee’s reference terms

The nine-member
Prison Decongestion Committee is chaired by the Solicitor-General of
the Federation and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice,
Abdulahi A. Yola.

The committee has
the responsibility to, among other things, ensure that indigent accused
persons get legal representation by way of engaging private legal
practitioners to undertake the defence of such persons in courts across
the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

In cases where
indigent convicts are given option of fine, it is also the
responsibility of the committee to pay such fines. The committee is
further mandated to periodically submit reports on discharged inmates,
inmates granted bail, and those convicted, and always “liaise with
relevant government agencies with a view to making progress on the
prison decongestion programme.”

It was gathered that about 65 percent of prison inmates nationwide
are awaiting trial persons (ATPs); many of whom are either petty
offenders or detained on mere suspicion. In spite of that fact that
many of the inmates could have been declared innocent by the courts,
they are subjected to inhumane detention conditions, sometimes for
periods longer than they would have served in jail if convicted.