*Says awaiting trial inmates are victims of remand system
Chief Executive Officer, Public and Private Development Centre, (PPDC), Jubril Shittu, has said that unwarranted remand of allege offenders in custodial centres across is largely responsible for the persistent challenge of prison overcrowding in Nigerians.
He made known at an Access to Justice and Pro Bono conference organized by PPDC in partnership with the United States Bureau International Department of Narcotics and Law Enforcement, (INL), and Legal Aid Council, yesterday in Abuja.
He said “A common statement is justice delayed is justice denied and when you have over 76, 000 people in the custodial facilities across the country and of which 70 per cent of those are awaiting trial, it shows how effective the justice system needs to be be.
“We are looking at issues not just on pretrial detention but also some of the criminal justice challenges and issues that we face
What we are doing is to contribute in our own way by working together with the various law clinics, the pro bono lawyers, the NBA, the Legal Aid council and the INL to see how we can reduce these numbers by delivering justice in a timely manner.”
Shittu explained that the meeting seeks to harness support from over 195 pro bono lawyers and over 250 law clinicians to offer their services in reducing pre-trial detention in Nigeria because a lot of individuals are languishing in detention centres awaiting trial for over a decade.
“We are also looking at some of the alternatives because some of these people that have been detained really have no reason to be in detention. We see this in the recent case of Bobrisky for instance,” he said.
Director General, Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, Aliyu Bagudu-Abubakar, said that council is supporting to decongest custodial centres and ensure the less privileged have access to justice through.
He pointed that the issue of congestion is probably question of two fold problems; one that prisons are not enough in number and secondly but more importantly, is the fact that the remand system’ is such that for every little offense, people are remanded in custody.
“This is why you see that our correctional centres are overcrowded with inmates and unfortunately inmates who are still awaiting trial.”
“For us in Legal Aid Council, essentially we are established by the government to assist the poor, so that the poor and indigents can be able to access justice. Every stakeholder in the justice sector is concerned about the issues around criminal justice administration and that is why seeking wats to ensure poor Nigerians do not suffer.
Speaking on key challenges to access to justice in Nigeria, Senior Programs Manager, PPDC, Kenechukwu Agwu, said Nigeria is losing a whole lot especially economically when a large chunk of Nigerians especially the poor who are denied access to justice.
He said Nigeria spends a lot of money in feeding over 76, 000 inmates with more than half of them.probably not meant to be detention and this is an economic loss.
“70 per cent of these detainees are people we are not even sure are guilty. Some of them have never even been tried, they are awaiting trial and yet we use Nigerian resources to feed them.
“If we are not able to resolve disputes within a few months, businesses will not be willing to come and do business with us because they are not sure that if they face legal issues it could be resolved on time,” he said.
