Emeka Ibemere
Ekpeyoug 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
off
It was gathered
that her Madam, after several beaten 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-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 visited any court in the prosecution of his alleged
theft.
Stories like this one;
are everyday sing- songs of under-aged 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 centers or the police stations.
Daily Newswatch checks also showed that many under aged inmates are
currently in various police stations apart from also being held in prisons. Prior
to now, the under-aged criminal responsibility is 14years, but with the new
child right law, the issue of juvenile has been removed and everything is now
18yrs and a child is somebody below 18years.
It was gathered
that children in the prison are 17years old or 18years. But our investigation
revealed that they were never 17 years as of the time they entered inside 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 years
old child in prison must have entered prison at the age of 12-14 years.
It was learned
that when police arrest children who are under-aged and because they are
under-aged and cannot be arrested that the police would cajole them to claim
that that were 18 so that they would be of age of arrest and take them the
prison, whereas their actual age would have been 14years. It was gathered that
the police would asked 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 would 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 were quite a lot of such cases in detention. Investigations revealed that
most of the suspects committed minor offences like stealing N500 or chicken and
the police would arrest, dump and lock them up in police stations and prisons
because of such minor offences.
Four years ago, 80
under aged inmates at Enugu Maximum Prison were released through the help of
some Non Governmental Organizations who visited the prisons with the state
chief judge.
In Lagos, both
maximum and medium, there are over 1000 under age inmates in both Ikoyi,
Maximum and Minimum prisons, including the female prison. While over 1000 under
aged are in various police cells throughout the state.
According to
findings, Lagos state has been working so hard to reduce the number of under
aged even as far as setting up a magistrate court inside the prison.
Our source
revealed that with what Lagos state was doing, the number of under-aged 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 aged
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 yes, these people are this, because they can go to court and their
case has 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 aged who stayed up to two to three years without trial because he
couldn’t explained to the police who arrested him for being in possession of
N35, 000, in his pocket.
There was a case
of an under-aged who stole N500 from his teacher and the teacher had to arrange
with the police and he was send to prison.
Further checks
also showed that 65.1% of most under-aged 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.
Giwa-Amu Igbono, a lawyer and a
senior partner, Stephen and Solomon Foundation,
Prison Ministries of the Knights of
St. Mulumba, Lekki Sub-Council is devoted to ensuring that oppressed people who
have been denied justice and their fundamental Human Rights are set free. His
chambers had succeeded in securing the release of 3000 inmates from various
prisons across the country.
Chinedu
Onyeanuforo said taking a child to police detention center for stealing N500 is
an act of wickedness.
He disclosed that
there are some designated centers to take them to for rehab rather than taking
them to police station, adding that those taking to police stations should be
those caught in the act of robbery.
He said when they
go to the police station and when no nobody comes for them, that the police
would depend on what the law says, on keeping the charged for too long in
police cell 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 in conflict with the law.
“They do not know
what to do and people are just careless about it and the police keep them and
at the end send them to court. Ideally, they should be sent to reform school
and not to prison. But this depends on the degree of the offence like you said
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 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 underage inmates in the cell
steams 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 economic 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 diverted 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”.
He continued,
“And also there is
peer groups influence. Some years ago, I carried out a research in the same
prison. I wanted to know offenders habit. We studied people in the prison
between the ages of 15 to 34years and when we asked them the reason they went
into crime, 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. This is because what their peers are doing; that’s what they will
prefer to do”.
According to Ajah,
some parents who do not have time to listen or talk to their children
considering the generation of today’s kids who are vibrant children, if they
are not occupied, they tend to occupy themselves with something else; so they
go with their peers and whatever their peers say are the thing they will do.
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 21states have
adopted it into law in Nigeria because it means giving a lot of rights and
privileges to teenagers.
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