President Muhammadu Buhari warmed his way into the hearts of Human Rights advocates and campaigners for the decongestion of correctional centres with his recent letter to the Judiciary on the nagging issue of prison reform. He wrote to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, asking him to put in place measures to decongest the correctional centres in the light of the spread of Covid-19. The United Nations had warned that ‘physical distancing’ and ‘self-isolation,’ which are preventive measures against Covid-19, are not practicable in correctional centres.
In his letter, Buhari argued thus, “From available records, the inmate population at various custodial centres across the country presently stands at about 74,127 out of which 52,226 are Awaiting Trial Persons (ATPs). Most of these custodial centres are presently housing inmates beyond their capacities and the overcrowded facilities pose a potent threat to the health of the inmates and the public in general in view of the present circumstances, hence the need for urgent steps to bring the situation under control… It has become imperative for Your Lordship to request State Chief Judges to embark on immediate visit to all custodial/correctional centres within their respective states to identify and release deserving inmates where that has not been done already.”
As a guide, Buhari asked the CJN to persuade State Chief Judges to release those who have been awaiting trial for six years; those who have no cases against them; aged inmates; terminally ill inmates; low risk offenders; those whose cases have no sufficient legal bases; those convicted of minor offences; and that fines that are negligible should be paid to free those with lesser offences. For prisoners who have committed serious crimes like armed robbery, banditry, kidnapping and the like, a special court should be set up in order to facilitate their speedy trial.
Buhari’s instructions came at a time when prisoners in several parts of the world protested their abhorring conditions in the advent of Covid-19 global pandemic. Prisoners have protested in Peru, Indonesia, Dominican Republic, Iran, Colombia, China, Thailand and even parts of the United States. Some countries have, consequently, released prisoners. Iran has released 54,000; Afghanistan, 10,000; Ethiopia, 4,011; Somaliland, 574; France, 250; and Arizona (US) 50. It is, therefore, not out of place for our Judiciary to speed up the process of decongesting the prisons and ensure that no life is lost to Covid-19.
Though Buhari’s letter is like an ad hoc measure in the light of Covid-19, Daily Trust calls on government to take a closer look at the administration of justice in Nigeria. We have thousands in Awaiting Trial Prisoners (ATPs) because of shoddy investigations by police officers. Either due to incompetence or lackadaisical attitude to work, Investigative Police Officers (IPO) present watery case files to prosecutors, who may not be able to provide sufficient or convincing evidence with which judges could speedily decide cases. As a result, suspects of petty crimes, or those framed up for offences they never committed, are thrown into prison and abandoned there for years because there is no substantial basis for hearing their cases. This practice is well-known to those whose duty it is to administer justice, but for over a decade now since prison decongestion became a chorus in the Ministry of Justice, no decongestion has happened. This is unacceptable.
President Buhari has changed the name of our prisons to ‘Correctional and Custodial Centres,’ but even after the change of name, inmates continue to live in conditions that rather solidify them as hardened criminals. We call on the CJN and the Chief Judges in the country to act on President Buhari’s letter speedily to free Nigerians from undeserving punishments in prisons and other detention centres. We equally appeal to Buhari to go a step further by issuing an Executive Order on prison decongestion. It is a veritable option if the president is serious about prison reform.
