December 2009 - Someone quite close to me had been incarcerated in Kirikiri Prisons Lagos for upsetting a Judge sitting at Federal High Court Ikoyi. It was supposed to be an ordinary hearing so she decided to just breeze in for the proceedings before heading to work. Alas, a few minutes later, on the orders of the Judge, she was tossed into the back of a waiting mini-Black Maria and subsequently ferried to Kirikiri. She was amazed as I was when I heard. She would go on to spend a couple of days in detention and it took high-powered pleading with the vile Judge to set her free. I drove to Kirikiri a couple of times to visit her during her incarceration and each time I arrived there, I asked 'What am I doing here?'. This person struggles everyday to live legitimately, she pays her taxes, she has never robbed or bilked anyone. The system is that rotten.Two days ago, Justice Ayotunde Phillips, the Chief Judge of Lagos, granted amnesty to 233 inmates of the Kirikiri Prisons. She graciously did this to mark the beginning of the 2012-2013 legal calender. During their release, she noted that most of them were still awaiting trial even after spending an incredible 12 years in prison. Amazing! How does a system keep human beings -not goats- incarcerated for 12years without trial? Twelve years is enough time to complete a first degree, a masters degree and a PhD. Twelve years is enough time to start a family and have 6kids with a 2year child-spacing regimen. Day and night for 12years, the system kept these men locked up in uncertainty. We have wasted the best parts of their youthful years. Now, we expect them to come out and suddenly develop entrepreneurial and professional skills and quietly fit into the society.
Those of us who know how the Nigerian Police operate, appreciate that many of those languishing across prisons in Nigeria are simply victims of a failed society. Police vans drive around the metropolis at dusk randomly picking up young men who they 'suspect' are criminals. These boys do not necessarily have to be engaging in criminal activities at the time they are abducted. They just need to be young, stern-looking, waiting on the road for whatever reason and male preferably. I once saw two young men waiting at Alagomeji bus-stop 'invited' into a nearby police van by patrol officers. From where I sat, the boys were innocuously waiting to board a commuter bus when the uniformed men accosted them with their rifles and pointed to the waiting bus. I assume they would be asked to 'bail' themselves and those who were not able to produce any appreciable amount of money were whisked away into oblivion and perdition. Twelve years later, when they are ripe for amnesty, another 'nice' Judge will come and set them free.
On two other occasions, I have seen the Police at their ingenious best. Once while I was an undergraduate in Port Harcourt and the other time when a relative of mine was randomly picked up in Lagos for no good reason. On both occasions, it took divine intervention to get them off the hook. In Nigeria, it is your word against that of the arresting constable. If he says you are a kidnapper, you are a kidnapper. If he says you are an armed robber, best believe it, you are an armed robber. You are what the Police say you are. There's never a paucity of incriminating evidence. They just suddenly turn up. That's how the system works. My friend and my relative were booked as armed robbers and while one spent a few days at the State Criminal Investigation Department, the other got off simply by providence.
This remains why I am always worried when the Police parade 'armed robbers' they killed during a 'grueling shoot out that lasted several hours'. Those boys are dead. They'll never be able to defend themselves. It is easy to keep live cartridges and ammunition next to a corpse. We'll never know the true story behind those killings. They will remain armed robbers! I am not saying there are no real robbers. I am asking how sure we are that those being paraded are really the criminals. Also note that when you torture a man long enough and hard enough, he will admit to almost any sin. Make your own deductions.
Mr Betram Anwagu regained his freedom on Tuesday too. According to him, he was a petty trader at CMS Lagos. He had an altercation with a fellow trader in 2005 and the next day the Police came to round them up. Seven years later, with no trial and no fair hearing, he has regained his freedom. He was labelled an armed robber and tucked away for seven long years. We also know the story of Blessing Effiong. The 20year old girl detained for 4years for allegedly stealing a mobile phone. She will be ever grateful to Linda Ikeji who was instrumental in her release from incarceration. This reflects the value my society places on time and human life. We have no qualms with wasting seven or four years of the life of a human being.
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One of the Deputy Comptrollers at Kirikiri on Tuesday, while addressing the Judge said of the 2,502 inmates of the medium prison, 2,370 were awaiting trial! Is this not alarming? Even in the deepest jungles, among the wildest animals, I doubt justice is served out this way. Again, knowing how my country works, I won't be shocked if this figure of total inmates is a rough estimate by the DCP. They have probably lost count of the number as I understand those prison-yards are small Empires lorded over by Prison wardens. Nobody really knows what goes on in there, apart from the inmates who make it out alive to tell the stories.
During the time I visited Kirikiri, I could not miss the level of corruption that holds sway there. To see an inmate, you first bribe the mobile policemen and prison warders outside the prison grounds. We even had to 'roger' the mini-Black maria driver and his deputy. That we were stressed emotionally by the sudden incarceration of a loved one was no business of theirs. They still demanded the bribes. Then to gain entrance into the prison, you 'roger' through the small hole on the gate. You are then searched and taken to the supervising warder of that shift. In my case, it was a morbidly obese woman whose bark was as venomous as her bite. Just by looking at her, you knew you would need more than verbal persuasion to get her approval to see the inmate you came to visit. Then you 'roger' again. When she is convinced you are serious, they go and fetch the inmate in question.
The warders even collect 'rent' from inmates who want VIP accommodation inside the prison. I have it, on good information, that they have special charges for the 3-man rooms as against the general cells where all and sundry stay. Many churches and outreaches visit this prisons on missions. They donate food items and consumables to the inmates via the warders. Whether these materials get to the inmates for their use is another question entirely. The benefactors simply drop the goods and turn their backs and leave. How they are disbursed among the inmates we will never know. We also will never know if these materials somehow find their way into the bags of the warders to be used in their homes. Don't mind my conspiracy theories, I am only asking questions that have boggled my mind for a while since December 2009.
Justice Philips said on Tuesday that in law, it is said that 'it is better for ten guilty people to be free than for one innocent person to be unjustly incarcerated'. I pray we will someday understand the full gravity of this statement. The authorities in Netherlands announced earlier in the year that they would be closing down eight prisons for lack of criminals. Here, everyday, we populate our own prisons due to our mental laziness and our obstinate proclivity for doing everything the wrong way.
For those of you reading this from your phones and iPads, in the comfort of your homes and cars, you have no idea how sacrosanct the gift of freedom is. It is probably only second to good health in terms of God's gifts to mankind. While I acknowledge the fact that 'he who lives by the sword should die by the sword', I also abhor the fact that people who have steered clear of the sword still die by the sword in Nigeria. It is callous. It is sadistic. It is utterly heinous.
If you must wish your most profound enemy any ill, do not wish him wrongful incarceration, especially in any prison in Nigeria. It is inhumane.
May God keep us all.
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