Justice delayed is said to be justice denied. In Nigeria, however, the opposite of this maxim seems to be the rule. Many accused persons spend more years awaiting trial than they would have spent in actual imprisonment if convicted for their crimes. This ugly trend has been fingered as one of the reasons for the congestion of prisons in the land? What could be done to change the abysmal state of the penitentiaries? Can the creation of state-owned prisons, as canvassed by some, be the way out?
When the former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Lagos State, Mr. Olasupo Shasore, SAN, called for the creation of state police and prisons in the country a few days ago he seemed to have re-opened the floodgates for the demand of a reform of the country's prison structure,.
His call also brought to the fore once again the pitiable state of the nation's penitentiaries. "The four principal actors in the administration of criminal justice in Nigeria are the police, the prison, the prosecution and the court and there should be proper co-operation between them. "If the police and the prisons are under the control of the state, we can now talk about an effective administration of criminal justice in Nigeria."
"It is absurd that in view of the number of inmates awaiting trial in Lagos, as it relates to the population, the facilities needed to take good care of them are lacking. I am speaking as a law enforcement officer," Shasore said at the Prisons Reform Conference organised by the Order of the Knights of Saint Mulumba Nigeria, Lagos Metropolitan Council recently.
He was quickly joined by others at the same and different fora. Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, last Tuesday in Abuja, at the ongoing Centenary Law Summit with the theme "Law and Society: 100 Years of Legal Development in Nigeria', called for a revolutionary approach toward sanitising the prison system in the country.
"The situation in Nigeria calls for a revolutionary approach and not a reform. We have a prison system where the poor are taken to jail regularly. "The rich, however, have access to good lawyers that frustrate trials so that they will not go to jail and where they go to jail they go into plea bargain for soft landing,'' he said.
Mr OCJ Okocha, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), and former NBA President, called for a full practice of the federal system of government, which gave states some level of power to execute certain projects. "The exclusive list is too wide and some of the things should be designated to states. "A division of the Federal High Court should be in all states of the federation.
The Court of Appeal should also have divisions in all the states,'' he said However, a lot of opposition has also risen up against the establishment of state owned prisons.
The opponents of state prisons among their claims argued that the expenditure of taking on the operation of prisons is too enormous for a state government to shoulder and that the development could bring about an abuse of the system by politicians and government officials.
Meanwhile the Nigeria Prison Service has blamed some of the problems confronting it on inadequate funding, urging state governments and other stakeholders to complement the effort of the Federal Government in developing the Service. However, in spite of the situation, the Service has been able to deploy resources in areas which would assist the criminal justice system in the country.
Saturday Mirror findings revealed that apart from the usual facilities at the prisons, the Nigeria Prison Service now has its own Dog Section.
It also has facilities for skills acquisition like tailoring or carpentry and the ingenuity of certain inmates in producing garments and other things for sale has generated some level of income for both the inmates and the government.
Some of the prisons now have Closed Circuit Television Cameras, CCTVs, installed, which help in monitoring movement in and around the prison. Controller General of the Service, Zakari Ohinoyi Ibrahim, said there were still challenges with the amount approved for feeding but that the Federal Government is working towards eliminating such.
He added: "One of the major constraints is lack of adequate funds, especially to pay contractors for jobs executed due to shortfall in funding in 2010 and 2011.
And these shortfalls have been carried over as liabilities and these have affected our operations. "Inadequate security weapons and gadgets required for operational uses in view of the prevailing security situation across the country. Some of our facilities have been attacked and burnt while some of our officers have been killed by terrorists.
"Inadequate budgetary allocation to cater for various essential needs of the Service such as construction of the various dilapidated prison structures across the country. "Prison congestion occasioned by large number of Awaiting Trial Persons which account for about 70 per cent of the total inmates' population.
"Inadequate logistics for conveying these inmates to court for regular hearing or trial and inadequate staff to effectively man the prisons, especially, in the light of the current security challenges".
On calls by some people for establishment the of state prisons service, the NPS said since the matter was before the National Assembly Committee on Constitution Review, it would await the lawful decision of the lawmakers. Spokesman of the Service, Ope Fatinikun, said: "It has not become law yet."
When prodded further, he said, "When we get to the bridge we shall device means to cross it".
National Mirror