Nigerian prisons
There have been a number of stories lately on Nigerian Prisons. Last week the BBC reported that Nigeria was about to release 25,000 prisoners including those with HIV/AIDS, the elderly, those with lost files and prisoners who have been in detention longer than the sentences they face. Some even picked up by mistake! African Shirts pointed out that the number of prisoners in Nigeria were much less than in Britain
"Nigeria
has 40,444 inmates in 227 prisons. This tallies closely with Home
Office’s World Prison figures of 2003 which put it at 39,368. The Home Office report of July 2005 put the UK’s prison population at 76,266. This works out at 34 inmates
per 100,000 of national population, with the UK on a whopping 139 per
100,000."
However he puts this down to an inadequate and slow justice system and bribery rather than a lower crime rate. What is encouraging is that those who have been held in violation of the right of Habeas corpus are amongst the many inmates to be released.
But can you imagine that you have been imprisoned for years because your file has been lost. (I see a large building full of people sitting around doing nothing, a bare dusty room with a few ancient looking blue and green files stacked on a wobbly shelf, an old desk with a dissatisfied civil servant also dusty and empty of life sitting on a broken chair) or worse you have been in prison for 10 years when the maximum sentence for the crime you committed is 2 years! No one to complain to, no money to bribe, lost forever in the filth and horror chamber that is a Nigerian prison.
I once had to go to a police station in Lagos – a long story for another day but suffice to say that the next time I was asked to go to a police station I escaped or rather ran away in my clapped out Nissan Patrol – what driving skills I had in those days!. As I was saying, I had to walk past a huge cell sardine packed full of men all with their arms hanging out shouting and the smell – it was like something out of Dante’s Inferno, a nightmarish experience. A cousin of mine once spent a few weeks in prison and came out with horror stories. For more on prison life I suggest reading Chris Abani’s Kalakuta Republic or Wole Soyinka’s "The Man Died".
IRIN news has a report on life on death row in Nigeria. OK these guys are murderers and very nasty people but even they are entitled to at least a minimum standard of human rights.
“Get back!” shouts the prison guard at the 118 detainees crammed inside a dilapidated building originally meant to house 33. Up to three inmates live in less than four square metres of space. An overpowering stench of urine and mould billows out into the courtyard.
As the report points out, life for other prisoners isn’t much better. The main problems are lack of food and over population
“Prisoners fight for space on the floor to sleep, they fight not to become depressed, and not to be victims of violence. They fight to survive.”
All of which encourage the spread of disease amongst inmates and probably staff as well. Prison staff are paid a pittance so it is hardly surprising that bribery is rife. The women’s prison in Kaduna fares no better
“We are devoured by mosquitoes, we all suffer malaria but don’t have
bed nets and the hospital has no medicine except paracetamol,” said
Zainab, 32, who has been incarcerated since April. “There is nothing.
Even sanitary napkins – we have to share one between two women every
month, or even every two months.”
This is so vile I cannot even think of what to say. One wonders why crime is so high with these kind of conditions if as most people believe prison is a deter ant. Do not, whatever you do in your life commit a crime in Nigeria because death would be a better punishment than to spend one day in this place. All adds up to a pretty picture.
Tags: Nigeria
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Sure makes US Prisons look like “Country-Clubs”…
Sharing sanitary napkins?! That alone makes me cringe and compared to the other issues, sanitary napkins seem to be the least of their problems.
To be falsely imprisoned on top of that…I can’t even imagine…
LOL! Lemme not begin to comment on the state of Naija prisons…when I got to the US and saw how things operated I marvelled. Its not surprising to me that ppl’s files have been lost etc. Sorry I sound cynical but when it comes to my country its like you just know what works and what doesn’t.
P.S.Great blog you have going on here..
1) Don’t get arrested in Nigeria.
2) Don’t be accused of any crime.
3) Have good friends in high places.
Very Important: Don’t engage in a gay or lesbian relationship or you will spend 5 years in prison! Read:
“And it is an offence for anybody to contract a marriage or have a relationship with a person of the same sex. If you do, it will carry a sentence of five years imprisonment without the option of fine and similarly if you aid or support in any way for anybody of the same sex to contract a relationship or marriage, it will also attract five years imprisonment.”
http://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-5380.0.html
Nigerian prison is the twin brother to HELL. If you have been there and survived, you will surely survive in hell. I have been there and I am so blessed to be alive to tell others to beware. Its a no go area. AN HALLUCINATING NIGHTMARE FOR LIFE
I am doing a research paper for my black studies class on the prison system in Nigeria and am in need of some help. I need to know who is in charge, why they are so bad, and any suggestions to help reform the current prison system. Anything would be a great help, thank you. My email is nherrmann@foothill.net
It was in this prison, that Mr Obasanjo underwent a spiritual rebirth – becoming a hard hitting preacher to other prisoners.
Now at the head of government, many say that this period of his life was responsible for the messianic zeal he now shows in trying to tackle the many problems confronting the country he is governing for the second time within 20 years.
Tru prisons can be a sort of reform. but Nigerian prisons are grossly inhuman. People are treatd like animals.I think the whole prison sector should be overahuled and new ones erected.
http://www.multidox.net/nigeria/general/index.html
Eventhough I was innocent, I ended up in a Nigerian prison with 3 fellow sailors. It is literally hell on earth. We were kept in open pits, almost like an empty swimming pool. For a ceiling the pit had a chain link fence. I would have to say half the people in the pit with us were women and children as young as 12.
The guards had gang planks and would look down on us. Sometimes we’d get urinated on. For fun the guards might toss a snake into the pit. Just about everyone had malaria, and tuberculosis. The mosquitoes would eat us alive at night. The sun would cook us in the day. I told myself if I ever got out of this I would never go back to Nigeria, and I never have. Thank God I’m still alive.
To all my fellow naijas, dont u think it is high time we rise up to do something about our prison sector? The convicts suffer as if they are in hell already and if they are even released they dont have any hope out there. It is really heart breaking. Please if u no u desire a change about this u can join me. email is sogbe_yemisi@yahoo.com
$100,000 Reward For Dennis LaCaze by the Nigerian Government.
LaCaze escaped Ita Oko Island prison by building a raft made of empty plastic bottles. How he made it through those crocidile infested water is still a mystery. No other human ever escaped Ita Oko Island. The Nigerian government still wants him.
LaCaze was supposed to be a scapegoat, but he escaped. Interpol and the Nigerian government still want Dennis LaCaze. Mexico wants him for some stolen airplane charges. To this day no one knows the specifics of how Dennis LaCaze escaped Ita Oko Island prison. It is surrounded by thousands of croccidiles. No one else has ever escaped Ita Oko Island prison.
Dennis was sent by his shipmates to buy drugs. A mixture of cocaine and marijuana from two German brothers……twins. Adolf and Rudolf Struedenhauffer. Adolf and Rudolf were musicians, and drug dealers.
When Dennis, and his ship-mate Kenny Bussong arrived at the house in Lagos, Nigeria, the Struedenhauffer brothers had already been murdered. When Dennis rang the door bell, the murderers answered the door.
A shootout ensued. Kenny Bussong was shot in the chest. LaCaze was shot, but managed to kill two Nigerian natives. They fled on the coastal road to the country of Cameroon.
Kenny Bussong died, and LaCaze passed out. The Nigerian police stopped them at the border.
No bail. No bond. A white American was sent to the Ita Oko Island Penal colony. Dennis had been charged with 4 counts of murder. That little “fart” somehow managed to escape and the Nigerian government still wants his foolish ass. They don’t call him “9-lives LaCaze” for nothing.
The Dennis LaCaze that escaped ita Oko Island prison in Lagos, Nigeria in 1984 is the same Dennis LaCaze that stole airplanes in America. Mr. LaCaze is still wanted by the Nigerian, and Mexican governments… as well as by Interpol. His reward is now at $100,000.