If UNO sees Nigeria Prisons, they would be ashemd ---Giwa Amu

Giwa-Amu Igbono, a lawyer and a senior partner, Stephen and Solomon Foundation, a Prison Ministry of the Knights of St. Mulumba, Lekki Sub-Council, has in the last three years paid visits to numerous prisons in Nigeria in one of their core responsibilities as a None Government Organization. In this interview with Emeka Ibemere, Amu revealed the state of ‘Kwale hell of prison in Delta State after his organization’s prison visitation recently. Amu, whose chambers is devoted to ensuring that oppressed people, who have been denied justice and their fundamental Human Rights, gain their rights and are set free, further blamed state and Federal governments on the shameful state of Nigerian prisons. He said if he should advice the Presidency on what to do; that he would recommend closing down on the prisons and sacking colonial prison workers still calling the shots at the NPS. Excerpts 

 We want to know the outcome of your last prison visitation?

First of all, we found out that the much talked about prison reformation and much talked about government to rehabilitate the prison sector and inmates and to put down befitting structures as a prison yards in this country is a fluke. We have seen on the numerous occasions, pretense that actually, doing what prisons ought to present. We have a United Nations Organizations, UN

O, standard about prisons all over the world. When take that into cognizant, then you know that Nigeria prisons is a shame.

What are those UNO conditions?

First, a prison condition must be habitable; it must be reformatory, it must be a rehabilitator, it must be with intention to reform and rehabilitate those people that have been sentenced and those who are awaiting trials. It is not a place where they are meant to serve punishment before conviction. But here we have a situation where we have 200 inmates in one cell. May be the inmates are awaiting trial. So United Nations’ standard is that these places must be habitable. So, the toilet you saw its pictures are not only inhuman but inhabitable. If the UNO should see those pictures and see Kwale Prisons they would be embarrassed.

When did you start visiting Nigerian Prisons?

We started two years ago, trying to visit all the prisons in Nigeria in the last three years ago. We have gone to several; ones, as far as the ones in the Northern zones of the country. We have gone to Gaya prisons, Kaduna. We have visited 180 prison yards in Nigeria in the last three years. And that doesn’t include the cottage institutions within the prisons. We have visited the borstals- where a suspect is presumed to be a juvenile. We have it in Abeokuta, Ogun State and we have them in other countries.

Do you know how many prisons we have in Nigeria?

No, because government sometimes faces challenge of being in charge of prisons. Like the one in Tekunle Lagos State, there was this one that gutted fire sometimes ago, the Nigerian Prison Service said they know about its existence yet it is operated as detention centre. When you confront them, with such things, or such places, they will tell you that it’s not within their detention prisons. So it’s difficult to say that we have 200 prison yards in Nigeria, because we have a lot of detention centres that ought to say that are under the prison services. But they are ignorant of it.

In your own assessment, would you say that Nigeria has few prison yards or have over considering the rate of crime wave and the intimidation population?

I think Nigeria has enough of prison yards. What we need to do is just to build befitting ones or renovate what we have and expand them. What I mean by we have enough is like this; Kirikiri prison, maximum, medium, and the female prisons. All we need to do there is to renovate them to standard prison yard.

For example, in Ikoyi prisons, it was for capacity of 700 inmates but right now, you over 2000 inmates there. What you have to do there is to expand what is on the ground or move them out of that place, if it has become too small or build a befitting place for them. It was done in Arkansas in the United States.

You close down the old ones and build a new one but to say that a primary project, is to build a new one when you have not developed the ones you have, that is why I said Nigeria has enough prisons. Develop what you have first, when it becomes insufficient, then you can think of moving to a new place. The ones you have now, you haven’t developed them. In the female prison for example, you have 800 inmates and you have 200 inmates there, so you cannot say that place is overcrowded. So, you develop what you have there.

So, let’s return to ‘Kwale Prison of hell’. What did your team observe?

Kwale prison is a national disgrace. Kwale prison is a centre that will encourage inmates into more criminality. Kwale prisons represents man’s inhumanity to man. Kwale prison is a pain if it meant to reflect reformatory systems of the judicial injustices. Kwale prison is an effort to embarrass Nigerian Prison Services (NPS). You have wonderful officers there working hard and wanting to as much as possible comply with the standing orders of the NPS, which provides for the welfare of the inmates. But how can they, when they don’t have one functional vehicle to take inmates to court. Officers in Kwale prison take inmates to court on a commercial motorcycle known as Okada. Quote me! Officers take inmates to court on Okada, including those on capital punishment or death roll. I have seen it with my eyes. I have visited the place and I know the place. They don’t have functional pipe-borne water, no bore-hole, there is hardly ever light there. The walls of the prison are cracking by day. It is a security risk.

How old is the Kwale prison and what is the staff strength?

No! The staff strength is about 80 persons now.

Is it a national or State prison?

There are no state prisons in Nigeria. All are under the federal control. This is one of the things we have been campaigning against. We always tell them that federal government should stop controlling prisons. The state governments take the benefits of the fines and charges paid but transferred the burden of maintaining the prisons to the federal government. The state governments should have jail houses if not prison yards where they keep those on awaiting trials because it is in there courts that they arraign them. When they are found guilty and fined, it is the state governments that collects the benefits so why leaving the burden to the federal governments. Dose the President of the country knows about the Kwale prison. I’m sure that the Minister for Interior doesn’t even know where Kwale is, talk less of knowing the prison in Kwale. Does he know where Gaya prison is? If he has gone to Kuje prison or heard about it, it’s because the prison is very close to him in Abuja. Has he been to the Abakaliki prison? Has Minister of Interior being to the Enugu prison before? Does he know where Oko prison is in Anambra State or the one in Auchi? These are the facilities he should visit instead of fighting people in the Immigration for job seekers. He should go to all these facilities and see things for himself. And you know one funny thing about it, there is this programme I watch on television with interest. They called it, ‘Behind The Wall’, done by the Nigerian Prison Service, which showcase what they felt they are doing in the prison sector but they don’t show Kwale prisons. And I’m sure that those journalists who are producers of that programme, have never been to Abakaliki prisons before. They haven’t gone the one in Oko, they have not being in the one in Benin, or Auchi, they haven’t being in Gaya, or the one in Enugu State. Have they being to the one in Kwara State? If they want to go to those places, let them come, we will take them to those prisons. They should stop deceiving Nigerians and their government showing what is not to the people. They are arm-chair journalists. Most of these prisons ought to be brought down and new prisons build on them in line with the modern day prison conditions. Crime is ‘dynamic’, you will see inmates using pencil or biro be drawing on the wall to find out the edge of the joining blocks to see for a way of an escape. With that they know where the blocks joined together and what they do is after scratching the walls and getting the blocks, they pull the blocks out and escape from there. There are so many prison yards in this country that they are just a disgrace and you have these warders working hard day and night.

All these while you have been visiting prisons, have you made your observations known to the stakeholders?

We have written and written, but the saddest thing is that they don’t have the courtesy of reply. And I said to somebody sometime, that you know that Kwale Prison is in a bad state, you know that prison yards need to be modernised, we are not telling you to build five-star hotels to these people, but make it habitable. We are not saying you should build water-bed, but for heaven’s sake provide the cheapest sleeping foam. Look at the Kwale issue, inmates are sleeping on bare floors. The nylon bag you saw in that picture is where they throw in the newspaper they used to clean themselves. So when you see those things, you know that this country is not responsive to the inmates.

But there is budget from the federal governments for the Nigerian Prisons Services?

Corruption and embezzlements are the problems. But another thing we have to ask ourselves is whether the budget allocated for the prisons is enough. And if it’s enough, did they get to the prisons. There are some prisons in these states that, all they get from the prison is N30, 000, monthly for maintenance.

Have you let the Comptroller General aware of the challenges of some prisons?

We have written severally and I have been to Abuja twice and requested to have an appointment but the reception, I got was very poor and it wasn’t accepted of security organization of prison services. I could have gone there to tell them that the walls of the Oko prisons are cracking and that the inmates are likely to escape. But there was no cordial reception for us. You know when these people are up there; they feel that they are next to God. We written to them, we have put it in the pages of the newspapers, we have told the world, don’t blame the people in charge of these prisons, don’t blame them blame the system.

How do we correct the ugly system?  

It must be corrected. First of all, you must believe in what you want to do. You must be convinced in what you are doing. In NPS now, you have graduates as serving officers, you have professionals as officers, you have Masters Degree holders as officers, you have psychiatrics, you have psychologists, and you have medical doctors, nurses, etc, so Nigerian Prison Service is no longer the service of the days of my uncle, who was a chief warder in 1961, that is not what we have. And he was there with standard six. We have a system that has developed a warder with. The only thing we need in NPS is corresponding government effort, to make it the worth the while. If you have a psychiatrics in Ikoyi prison, who doesn’t have the facilities to work, it goes to no issue. Do you know that Stephen and Solomon donated an ambulance to Ikoyi prison? My foundation donated Sienna bus to carry inmates to courts in Lagos State.

Stephen and Solomon Foundation donated at our own cost donated furniture to the prisons because when we got there, we saw an officer lying on bench to write and when you asked them why, they tell you that allocation has been made for that, but it never get down to where it gets to. So the only way to correct it is to make sure that the allocations are religiously and judiciously used. It must be monitored to the last kobo. Let the Presidency inaugurate a committee to visit all the prisons in Nigeria.

 How can you take Boko Haram suspects and bring them to Lagos State, when the same walls of 1912 are still there? When they are using bombs to destroy the Nyanya parks? The warders in charge of these prisons do they have anti-ballistic missiles or anti-bomb equipments. The arm-guards you have in prisons, you pay them N25, 000, a month, do they have bullet proof. Do you expect them to go and risk their life for N25, 000? The lowest serving officer in Nigerian prison earns N25, 000, monthly.

And you will expect that such a man to risk his life and you don’t think if he has an option of escaping a prisoner, he won’t do it. Are you telling me that as a PA on N25, 000 and I was offered N5million to escape a prisoner, he won’t do it. Look, let not we deceive ourselves.

At the Kwale prison, did the officials tell you while the prison is in that hell of state?

Well, some spoke to us and I must tell you that it’s not the fault of the warders. Did you see their quarters? You need to see the quarters where they live before you know the kind of persons you talk to. There own quarters is like they are inmates. You see somebody who looks like a prisoner and you are asking him what? Look at the pictures. Their barrack is a disgrace. Where the warders and wardresses take their baths are an eye sore. And you want me to tell that prisoner to give bread and egg to prisoner to eat.  The federal government should wake up and the state governors should know that prison yards will eventually be their homes one day. So if I was in their positions, I should do my best to prisons because the way the country is going now, there is hardly a state governor who wouldn’t be an inmate.

So, what are they doing with the so-called security votes?

Greed! It is a question of greed. Most of the governors have the tendency for greed and avarice, unstopping acquisition and avarice. Some who have N20billion would like to have N2000billion and he doesn’t care how it comes. I was asking somebody in Kwale what the community has done to help the prison institution. You know what the man said? Fortunately, that is the only federal presence in that area and I said to him, you mean prison yard is the only federal government presence when you supposed to be talking about good federal roads, industries.  May be Fashola would have been interested in prison condition if it were something that would bring something into the coffers of the Lagos State. He would have build five-star hotel and you as a prisoner, if you want to take a room, you pay N5, 000 for a day. May be he would have been interested because Fashola loves how to tax people. But in actual fact, somebody who is presumed to be innocent shouldn’t put in a cage.

If you are asked to write a blueprint on the Nigerian prison, to the Presidency, what would be in your document?

   First, the issue of prison must be removed from the exclusive list. Second, make the burden of the prisons the duties of the state affairs. Third, there is the need for drastic overhauling of the Nigerian prisons. Those officers and men who got to prison’s highest level and reached the peak of their careers through the ranks should be dismissed. Those who have graduated from the universities, polytechnics, should be made to take over and take the pinnacle of power in the NPS. This is because, these graduates are the ones with vision and knowledge, they are the ones with quality leadership  who know what it is to reform prisons by international standard, not the ones with not the stereotype ideas of red-tapism. All the prison should be shut down by declaring emergency on the prisons. Kwale prison should be shut down. Ikoyi prison should be shut down and new ones built, either in that place or in other place.Gayan Prison should shut down, Shagamu, Oko, Enugu, Abakaliki, Abeokuta, which is in the heart of the town and Auchi prisons should be shut down.