COVID 19 – Legal Aid Council And NBA Ikorodu Branch Urges Lagos CJ To Stop Remanding Suspects

The Lagos State Director of Legal Aid Council of Nigeria and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Ikorodu Branch have advised the Chief Judge of Lagos State not to be remanding suspects for now.

The LACON State Director noted that

“…needless to say that the situation at the Kirikiri and Badagry Centers are not different from this and given the inadequacies in water, sanitary, medical facilities and the unhealthy close contacts at these correctional centers due to congestion, all that is required to get these high population of Nigerians infected with the Coronavirus is to send just one person who has contacted the virus to each of this centers, as an offshoot of overnight cases and that is the beginning of another problem”.

The capacity of the Ikoyi correctional center is for 800 inmates but currently has about 3119 inmates.

The NBA Ikorodu Chair completely agrees to note that the inmates are human beings and are entitled to the right to life especially if they have not been sentenced to death.

The chairman of NBA Ikorodu Branch and the LACON Lagos Chief, therefore, joins other stakeholders in calling on the CJ of Lagos as well as the Hon AG of Lagos to consider these views.

Akinlade notes however that the Lagos State Judiciary in its body language is taking several precautions regarding containing the spread of the virus and plans to embark on a massive prison decongestion initiative that will see the release of most awaiting trial inmates who have spent at least 2 years in detention. The Ikorodu Chair also acknowledges the efforts of the office of the DPP through its filtering system which is very strict about criminal charges being brought to court as a few charges have been rejected so far especially considering the congestion in the prisons

The Chairman NBA Ikorodu Branch lends his voice to the calls being made to STOP all remand until the Corona Virus is contained.

The LACON Lagos Chief, speaking to the NBA Chairman passionately noted… “The inmates also need to be protected from Coronavirus. To this end, there is need to stop remanding defendants of overnight cases pending the perfection of bail for 1 or 2 months pending when we see the end of Coronavirus.

If overnight cases are taken, the condition for bail must be such that the defendant can go back home same day, where the defendant has no surety, he should be granted bail on self recognisance without deposit of any bail sum in order to ensure that fresh defendants do not go in to endanger the lives of the high population we have at the correctional centers. A where a defendant pleads guilty on arraignment, he should be given the non-custodian sentence”