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NBA Lagos Branch Law Week: Members visit Prison, Present Gifts to Inmates

As part of the NBA Lagos Branch efforts to improve the conditions of inmates in Lagos Prisons, and it drive to reform the country’s criminal justice system, the leadership of the Premier Bar, as part of their outlined programme for the 2018 NBA Lagos Annual Law Week, made a visit to the Ikoyi prison to engage prison authority in other to collaborate and have a reform media network with the inmates.

This year’s visit according to the Lagos Bar Chairman, Chukwuka Ikwuazom is to examine a number of outstanding issues, had a multi-pronged set of objectives – key among which are the urgent imperative of decongesting the Kirikiri and Ikoyi grossly over-crowded prisons (especially the prompt disposal of cases involving prisoners awaiting trial); the need for a better framework for penal reform in Nigeria; the need to end the practice of mixing up inmates in the same facilities or cells, regardless of the nature of their offenses; the challenge of rehabilitating and reintegrating released prisoners back into society (and its potential impact on said society); and managing the cost – to the public, to the individual families of inmates, and to the prison system – of imprisonment,  among others.

NEWSWIRE‘s Lagos correspondent report that the initiative of the NBA Lagos Branch at this period of their 2018 Annual Law Week is driven by the congestion of the Lagos prison over the years.

In his remarks during the prison tour, the Administrative Officer, Mr. Adeleye  T., dwelt at length on the underlying reasons behind the vexed issue of over-crowding. As we speak a large number of inmates and condemned criminals in these cells (Ikoyi Prison) is estimated at 2,789 in which 2,289 are awaiting trials and the reluctance of the Ministry of Justice Department to facilitate the investigation of inmates with minimal offenses and disposal of their cases – either through their release. He called for a more robust engagement between the Nigerian Bar Association, the justice department and even the media in a bid to bring about a better understanding of the issues on the part of all relevant stakeholders.

While admitting that the issue of penal and justice reform in Nigeria is pathetic, the prison’s Legal Officer, Mr. Adeyemi A S., expressed confidence that “even in the face of executive and legislative apathy, the Lagos lawyers could make a difference  in favour of the inmates.”

Adeyemi said, “The details, data and statistics of inmates in the Ikoyi prison, and their conditions at various stages – even though some of them are disconnected from their families, their existing reports of the facts and issues such as stalled cases, the role of the police (especially its Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS), and the traffic of suspects, is always available to take up as a pro-bono case for lawyers.”

In his response, the Deputy Comptroller of Ikoyi Prison, Tolu Ogunsakin, said the assembled lawyers gathered can voice their concerns and observations as they pertain the following areas: the need to gain access to factual information without the usual impediments and secrecy surrounding official activities in Nigeria, as has been the situation over the years – a turnaround which would, in turn, enable a closer look at the true plight of vulnerable groups such as women inmates, children, and people with physical and mental disabilities. On the issue of minors (young people aged below 16 years), they called for a review of laws governing the disposal of cases involving minors accused or convicted of capital offences, and a renewed public and private-sector investment into juvenile centers and remand homes across the nation.  They also called for a more prominent role for experts in psychology, psychiatry and mental-health issues, as well as counselors, in a bid to prevent recidivism and a subsequent return to prison on the part of released prisoners.

In addition to the current administrative personnel of the prison, the NBA Lagos Human Rights Committee would also use the services of paralegals and pro-bono lawyers to engage various prison authorities and the Ministries of Justice on a regular basis in order to seek for the release of some inmates with minor offenses.

The visit also featured the presentation of gifts from the NBA Lagos Branch.

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