Rising cases of underage prisoners cause for concern, say stakeholders

EMEKA IBEMERE

Ekpeyoung Uwem (not real name), a house boy at Ago Palace Way, Okota, Isolo LCDA of Lagos,, was just 24 years old last month.

He was 12 years when he was taken to the Kirikiri Maximum prison as an inmate. Uwem has spent 12 years without trial.

What was his offence?  He allegedly stole her Madam’s N1000.

It was gathered that her Madam, after several beatings and threats to the little boy’s life, handed him over to the police, with an instruction: to be dealt with.

From there, Uwem took a free -ride provided by his captors, the Police; and after 30 minutes drive, landed in Kirikiri prison at Apapa Area of Lagos State, in 2001.

To date, Uwem is yet to be released or taken to any court for prosecution of his alleged theft.

Stories like this one are everyday sing- songs of under-age inmates who are languishing in various prisons across the country.

Investigations also revealed that these child-inmates are either dumped at prisons or police detention centre or the police stations.

Daily Newswatch checks also showed that many under- age inmates are currently in various police stations, apart from also being held in prisons.

Prior to now, the under-age criminal responsibility is 14 years, but with the new child right law, the issue of juvenile has been removed and everything is now 18. A child is somebody below 18years.

It was gathered that children in the prison are most in the age bracket of 17 or 18. But our investigation revealed that they were never 17 years as at the time they got into the prison.

Our source hinted that the kid-inmates were actually 12 to 13 years when they were arrested and dumped by the police. 

Our source further explained that an 18- year- old child in prison must have entered prison at the age of 12-14 years.

It was learnt that when the police arrest under-age children, they will allegedly cajole them to claim that that were 18 so that they would be of age of arrest. But their actual age would have been 14 years. It was gathered that the police would ask them to say they were 17 years, so as to grant them bail. But on getting to the police station, the police would prepare their charges and rush them to court, which will in turn remand them in prison custody.  

A prison source told Daily Newswatch that the child-inmates would claim 17 years as instructed by the police, just to be able to carry them to prison.

“So, those children will say something like that and they will carry them. And when you go to the prison and see these children and ask them of their age, they will tell you that they are 14 or 15 years, but they were brought in as 17. They will also tell you that they were told by the police to say that so that they will be released,”. a warder revealed.

In Enugu State, there are quite a lot of such cases in detention. Investigations revealed that most of the suspects committed minor offences like stealing N500 or chickens. They were arrested by the police and later dumped in prisons because of such minor offences.

Four years ago, 80 under-age inmates at Enugu Maximum Prison were released through the help of some Non- governmental organizations who visited the prisons with the state’s chief judge.

In Lagos, there are over 1000 under- age inmates in both Ikoyi, Maximum and Minimum prisons, including the female prison. Also, there over 1000 under-age are in various police cells throughout the state.

According to findings, Lagos State has been working so hard to reduce the number of under- age in prisons, even as far as setting up a magistrate court inside the prison.

Our source revealed that with what Lagos State is doing, the number of under-age inmates might have drastically reduced, but that a large number of them are still inside the police detention cells.

 “You still find a whole lot of under- age people, especially at the robbery area. But they are all suspects and have not yet been adjudged criminals. They are just hanging there. So, it won’t be right to say that these people are this because their cases have not been proved beyond reasonable doubt.”

Police are accused of detaining suspects without trial. Daily Newswatch gathered that there was a case of 14 years old who has been detained for 7 years at Ikoyi for wandering.

 Investigation revealed that there was also an under- age who stayed up to two to three years without trial because he couldn’t explain to the police, who arrested him, for being in possession of N35, 000.

There was a case of an under-age who stole N500 from his teacher and the teacher had to arrange with the police. He was eventually sent to prison.  

Further check also showed that 65.1% of most under-age persons in prison are there because they don’t have legal aid.

“It is when you have legal assistance that people know that you shouldn’t be there. Also most of the people in prison are poor and there is hardly any justice to the poor people”, Giwa Amu stated in an interview he granted Daily Newswatch recently.

Chinedu Onyeanuforo said taking a child to police detention centre for stealing N500 is an act of wickedness. He disclosed that there are some designated centres to take them to for rehab rather than taking them to police stations, adding that those taken to police stations should be those caught in the act of robbery.

He said when they go to the police stations and nobody comes for them, then, that the police would depend on what the law says and based on that, they would have no other option but to carry them to court.

According to Onyeanuforo, the police should have other options like remand homes where child-suspect would go to, instead of rushing them to police and from there to court and subsequent prison.

He further disclosed that the children that get into criminal activities sometimes get in conflict with the law.

“They do not know what to do and people are just careless about it and the police keep them. At the end of the day, they charge them to court. Ideally, they should be sent to a reform school and not to prison. But this depends on the degree of the offence.  Stealing N500 is not enough to send somebody to prison. But that is what the child said; it is not what the person who took him there told the law enforcement agents,” Nwosu Chijioke stated.

“So they will obviously lie to the law enforcement agent to be able to hand the child in. it is when we interact with the children on a personal basis that they will start telling you the truth, which is not known”.

Vincent Ajah stated that the reasons why there are so many under-age inmates in the cell stems from the obvious reasons of poor family orientation and change in family values.

He blamed it on parents who are always on the move and do not have time to take care of their children, adding that these kids get into criminals activities that lead them ultimately to prison.

He disclosed that the hard times of some families, where the children have to go out and fend for their families also contribute to the over population of kid-inmates in prisons.

Ajah stated that as children, they could easily be led into crimes.

“So, the family values, economic situation and, parental carelessness are the major causes. Poor orientations, which people are giving their children today are also part of the major causes of crime”. He stated.

“These days children are saying, ‘I want to make money because that’s the in- thing’. They are no longer interested in hard work. And to worsen it, the parents are not there to give these children guidance. Because the Bible said train up a child the way he is supposed to go and when he is old he would not depart from it.

“And also there is peer group influence. Some years ago, I carried out a research in the same prison. I wanted to know offenders’ habit. We studied people in prisons between the ages of 15 to 34 years and when we asked them the reason they went into crimes, almost 75% was as a result of peer group influence. So, peer influence has a lot to do in crime activities among the young people in particular.”

 He disclosed that sometimes they get the good ones and most times, they follow the bad ones.

“This is because when you see them after they have committed the crime, you will see the innocence in them that they didn’t even know what they were doing”.

Ajah said with the new law, juvenile has been expunged and replaced with the child rights law. It was gathered that 21 states have adopted it into law in Nigeria because it means giving a lot of rights and privileges to teenagers.