The Abia State Chief Judge, Hon. Justice Theresa Uzokwe has reduced the number of inmates in the Aba prison, but you will not appreciate the impact of the reprieve until you hear the story of the correctional facility.
Aba Federal Prisons, left behind by the colonial administration, is weighed down by many burdens, like others across the country. Apart from logistic problems, it is also congested. The Nation gathered that the facility which was originally meant for about 250 inmates is now being occupied by well over 500 inmates.
It was also gathered that the population of the inmates was putting more pressure on the facility and a daunting challenge for the staff of the Nigerian Prison Service (NPS) to maintain peace within the yard.
From the records, the prison has 597 female and male inmates with 402 detainees on Awaiting Trial roll, nine lifers, 105 convicts, 80 on observation and one detainee.
A staff member who does not want to named, told our correspondent that the prison facility is being overstretched because of the population of inmates at the facility even as the source blamed the judiciary and police for the population of inmates on Awaiting Trial list.
According to the source, some of the inmates since they were remanded in the prison custody have never been to court, while some after their initial arraignments have been dumped in the prison with several court adjournments which have stalled their cases till date.
According to the source, some of the inmates who are the most difficult to manage are people with stringent bail conditions, those who feel that they were unnecessarily arrested and the ones who felt that they were unjustly detained and would have served out their jail term if convicted of the crime which they were accused of.
Some of the inmates who spoke to our correspondent raised issues of poor sanitary condition, poor feeding, lack of legal aid, non-availability of vehicle to convey them to court any day their matter will be coming up, delayed justice system (persistent adjournment of matters in court) and amongst others which has their continued detention.
Luck has smiled on some of these inmates as the Chief Judge of the state during a jail delivery exercise at the Aba Prisons granted them bail and equally discharged some.
Little drama however, played out at about 10:55am shortly after the State Chief Judge started sitting for the day. A woman who was later identified as Mrs. Elizabeth Akwuiwu-chukwu, the Chief Registrar High Court of Justice claiming to be acting on the orders of the Chief Judge, asked journalists who had come to cover the event to leave the hall.
Akwuiwu-chukwu said, “The CJ asked me to tell you to leave the hall. We will call you in when we finish,” but when the journalists demanded to know why the CJ asked them to leave at such event, the chief registrar said “I am only acting on orders”.
It was while the journalists were on their way out of the Prison yard, that the public relations officer of the state judiciary, Chika Orji-Nwoke told the newsmen that the CJ has changed her earlier position.
Uzokwe, who spent over four hours looking at cases of inmates, granted bail to about five inmates while seven others were discharged of the offences that they were alleged to have committed.
One thing that stood out throughout the exercise was prolonged matters in court and unlawful detention of Abians at the facility without any case pending before any court of law.
While seven inmates, namely, Ogochukwu Nwaeze, Obinna Nwankwo, Iko Mohammed, Peter Jonah, Akajiaku Achilihu, Ndubuisi Uwakwe and Udo Akpan were discharged for being unlawfully and illegally detained at the facility, Ezere Jite, Nnamdi and Eziaha Chigbu were granted bail of N50, 000 each with one surety.
Others who weren’t lucky had their cases referred back to the trial judge for speedy hearing.
The Abia CJ said that some of the discharged inmates were yet to be arraigned in court while others could have served out their jail term if they were tried and convicted of the crime that they were accused of even as she frowned at delayed trial and stringent conditions of bail given by trial magistrates and judges to the accused persons.
She also directed judges handling cases of some of the inmates she referred to their various courts to ensure compliance and expedite action.
Speaking at the end of the exercise, Justice Kenneth Nwosu of Aba High Court III described the exercise at the Aba Prison as landmark.
According to Nwosu, the exercise is statutorily provided for which empowers the State Chief Judge to visit prisons in the state once in a while to review cases of those who were wrongly convicted, illegally detained or those who might have served out their jail term assuming the accused have been tried and convicted of their various crimes.
He said an innovation is already in place to ensure quick dispensation of justice and to eliminate seeking of unnecessary interlocutory appeals sought by lawyers which contributes to overstay of matters in court and urged people who felt that their fundamental human rights were being infringed as a result of their long detention to seek redress in court.
The Deputy Comptroller of Prisons (DCP) in charge of Aba Prison, Stephen Ugba hailed the State CJ for coming and added that the transparency of the exercise would give hope to other inmates and also reduce the stress of the personnel in managing the inmates.
Ugba called for the support of the state government and other well-meaning Abians and Nigerians to the facility which it said lacks logistics and other amenities to run its day-to-day activities.
Meanwhile, the freed inmates were left with mixed feelings of leaving the facility and what the future holds for them after their life at the detention camp, but other inmates who were not beneficiary of the CJ’s magnanimity had no other choice than to rejoice with their mates who would no longer eat their malnourished foods, bath in the open, being chased into their confinement by personnel of the NPS.
They knelt down thanking God for an opportunity to once again reunite with their family members and welcomed back by old friends.
