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Prison Congestion: Judges Are Failing In Their Duties

The Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) president, Afam Osigwe, has said judges and magistrates are to be blamed for the congestion of prisons and detention centers across the country.

Afam Osigwe noted that prisons and detention centers across the country have turned to places for gross violation of the human rights of the citizens.

He stated this on Tuesday in an interview with Arise TV. He said one of the reasons why citizens refuse to honour invitations of the security agencies was the gross abuse of rights of the citizens and prolonged incarceration without trial.

The NBA president explained that it was the duty of magistrates and judges to visit detention centers and prisons to ensure bail facilitations or ensure citizens in detention centers are charged to court.

He, however, regretted that they had failed to carry out their duties leading to prolonged incarcerations.

“The issue of prolonged incarcerations on account of remand orders issued by courts, especially the magistrate courts; in circumstances where the court has no jurisdiction or no charges were filed.

“We identify it as one of the major causes of high number of prison inmates in Nigeria which is put at about 73 percent of the prison population as being that of person awaiting trial. And a number of these persons will never get tired of noting they may spend longer time than they would spend if they were convicted. Some might actually be innocent. Like we noted some get broken in the prison, lose their families, some actually die while in detention. 

“Again we noted the fact that despite the provisions of the law which require magistrates and judges to visit detention facilities to ascertain the number of persons there and also inquire into their detention, either to grant them bail, or either to be charged to the court, or that they be released on bail on setting condition being fulfilled, that the magistrate and the judges are failing to carry out statutory duties,” Afam said.

The NBA President continued, “That has led to the increasing number of persons who are being exploited. So police stations and many detention facilities have become a place of gross human rights violations.”

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