The Nation Newspaper

Tag: bemoans

  • Senate bemoans plight of awaiting prison inmates

    If a bill seeking the amendment of the Criminal Justice system in the country sails through at the National Assembly, awaiting trial inmates may no longer be consigned to lives of uncertainty.

    The bill seeks to mandate the Comptroller-General of Prisons to make monthly returns of inmates to the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) and the states’ Chief Judges.

    The CJN and Chief Judges will in turn order the release of any person unlawfully detained or detainees who have overstayed the period they should have served if they were timely sentenced.

    “A Bill for an Act to amend the Criminal Justice (Release from custody) Special Provision) Act Cap C 40 laws of the Federation of Nigeria to provide for the Comptroller-General of Prison to make monthly returns to the CJNigeria and the Chief Judges of the states to order the release of persons detained in prisons unlawfully and those who have overstayed the period they would have stayed if timely sentenced,” was sponsored by Senator Babajide Omoworare (Osun East).

    The bill aims specifically to address the nagging issue of prison congestion.

    Senator Oluremi Tinubu (Lagos Central) described the bill as timely and urged her colleagues to support it.

    She said the prison congestion cuts across every part of the country and should be addressed holistically.

    Senator Olufemi Lanlehin (Oyo South) said the bill speaks for itself because it raises the issues that are not hidden from Nigerians.

    Lanlehin noted that the Constitution provides for the protection of the fundamental rights of all Nigerians.

    He said: “We are all aware that some times some awaiting trial inmates are forgotten in prison, some times their files get missing, at other time they stay in prison more than the time they are supposed to stay if they are timely convicted.”

    The lawmaker prayed the Senate to use the opportunity of the bill to address the anomaly in the interest of natural justice.

    Omoworare in his lead debate said that the thrust of the bill is to address the problem of prison congestion that has defied almost every regime in the country.

    He added that the disheartening bleak truth is that prisons in the country host almost 70 per cent of inmates who are awaiting trial.

  • Coalition bemoans Nigerians’ endless woes

    A civil rights coalition, Nigeria Peoples’ Centenary Group (NPCG), has described Nigeria’s existence since amalgamation in 1914 as “painful,” saying there is nothing to show for it. It added that the past 100 years had been characterised by unending political and economic turmoil, and “floundering fortunes”.

    “People’s quality of life has seen little improvement since the military left the stage 13 year ago. Insecurity of lives and property has become more pronounced than it was in the past.

    “In recent years, people’s bottled-up disenchantment has been finding outlets through violent expressions. Now, the country’s woes are being compounded by the growth of sectional fundamentalists who, in blind rage, kill scores of innocent people almost on a daily basis,” the group lamented.

    The group, at a press briefing in Lagos on its planned centenary summit slated for the second quarter of this year, said the government’s proposed centenary celebration would be of any benefit to Nigerians.

    NPCG’s summit, it said, would provide a platform for various political and social forces in Nigeria to express their views on their future “out of free, and informed consent.”

    “The government has gotten it completely wrong,” NPCG’s Deputy Convener, Olanrewaju Suraj said, adding that the country’s future appears bleak, adding that the summit is “a critical interventionist programme” that will bring together “all stakeholders in the Nigerian dream for a critical assessment of the state of affairs” with the aim of arriving at a “possible international consensus on the practical steps needed to save Nigeria from political explosion.”

    One of the conveners, Adewale Adeoye said: “It is not time for celebration but to tackle issues of hunger, homelessness, ignorance, exploitation and ethnic discontent that have been threatening the health of the Nigerian nation.”

    It added: “The summit will reach local and international consensus on the future of Nigeria after 100 years of involuntary amalgamation. It will build a fresh, solid international network to ensure the entrenchment of democratic values in Nigeria.

    “The summit will constructively engage all aggrieved parties so as to ebb the spate of violence that now threaten to consume Nigeria. It will create a platform for honest, transparent means of addressing all inequalities arising from the 1914 amalgamation of Nigeria.”

    Participants, it said, will include representatives of indigenous communities, human rights groups at home and abroad, labour unions, the United Nations agencies, international and diplomatic community, state and federal authorities.

    Members of the planning committee include foremost rights activists Dr Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) and Mr Femi Falana (SAN).

  • US bemoans corruption in Nigeria

    The United States Consul General, Jeffrey Hawkins, yesterday bemoaned the negative effect of corruption on the growth and development of Nigeria.

    He said: “Stealing the money intended for development, such as hospitals, roads, water, electricity and other infrastructure, will hinder development.”

    The US Consul General spoke at a forum in Ibadan organised to mark the International Day for corruption, tagged: ‘The Anti-Corruption Day 2012.’

    At the forum meant to brainstorm on the fight against corruption, other speakers proffered solutions to the problem of corruption.

    The Public Affairs Officer of the U.S. Consulate General, Lagos, Dehab Ghebreab, said: “Americans declare December 9 as the International Day for Corruption. Since 2003, we have focused more on corruption and we want to say that government officials who should be responsible to the people should not be engaged in corrupt practices.”

    A Mass Communication lecturer from Lead City University, Ibadan, Dr. Yemi Oginni, while delivering a lecture entitled: ‘Nigeria’s culture of corruption and the Muyibi Shonubi syndrome’, at the forum said efforts of the United States of America and other international communities to fight corruption in Nigeria may not be successful without enlisting the support of the citizens.

    Oginni, who lamented that corruption had affected the essence of the nation, said Nigeria had a culture of corruption.

    “A lot of things have been done to fix corruption in this country. There is little or nothing that the Americans and the international community can do. In Nigeria, there are some things that may not let corruption fizzle out. Unless this is dealt with, we may just be beating about the bush.

    “An average Nigerian in secondary school is waiting to have his teeth deep into what he calls the “national cake.” Some of us can recall what happened around 1985, when a taxi driver called Muibi Shonubi discovered a bag of money in his cab here in Ibadan and returned it. Everybody was happy initially.

    “The owner of the bag came around and the money was returned. The man should have been honoured, but he was not. The media tried but the public later castigated him for being foolish. Most shocking is the fact that my uncle usually abuse me as a fool like Shonubi (the cab driver),” he said.