BY PETER DURU, MAKURDI
The Executive Director of Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants, CURE-Nigeria, Mr. Sylvester Uhaa has blamed the scandalous, shameful and embarrassing prison conditions in the country on years of neglect, pervasive corruption, abuse of power, disregard for the rule of law and human rights, impunity and lack of accountability and transparency among the three arms of the criminal justice system – the judiciary, police and the Nigerian Prison Service.

Underaged prison inmates at the Badagry prisons in Lagos State

Mr. Uhaa who spoke in his reaction to the statement accredited to the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, on the occasion of the launching of the prison study done by PRAWA and the NPS.

Mr. Uhaa said that while he congratulated PRAWA and NPS on the research, he maintained that the study found nothing that was not common knowledge about the prison system in Nigeria.

According to him, “these are well known facts about our prison system. Several past Presidential Committees on Prison Decongestion visited prisons across the country and had made several recommendations that would have prevented the current situation.

“But those recommendations were put on the shelves and forgotten, in spite of the millions of Naira spent on financing them.

“It is our hope that the renewed national discourse about prison reforms/decongestion such as what we are seeing in National Assembly will be sustained and pursued to a logical conclusion.

“But to achieve these, the National Assembly must work collaboratively with the office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, State Commissioners of Justice, State Chief Judges, State Commissioners of Police, States House of Assembly, NGO’s and other key stakeholders in the justice sector.

“For example, the National Assembly should prevail on the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, being the Chief Law Officer of the Nation, to demand full compliance and implementation of the detention time limit as set out in the 1999 Constitution as amended.

“Also, he should work with State Commissioners of Justice to ensure the domestication of the Act in all States of the Federation. In addition, some parts of the ACJ Act such as Part 30, need to be amended to comply with the Constitution, the grand norm.

“Furthermore, heavy reliance on incarceration as the only form of punishment has to stop. We need to implement Part 44 of the ACJ Act, which allows for alternatives to incarceration, as well as invest more in crime prevention and prisoner rehabilitation and reintegration.

“Above all, the National Assembly and all stakeholders must work to reduce corruption, abuse of power, impunity, disrespect for the rule of law and human rights, as well as lack of accountability and transparency in the three arms of the criminal justice system.

“This is the only way the perennial problem of prison congestion can be addressed once and for all in Nigeria.” Uhaa stated