His words: “We need a new approach to prison congestion. It is a national scandal that many of our jails are overcrowded by up to 90 per cent. “Urgent measures should be put in place to speedily decongest the prisons not only in the interest of justice but also to save cost of prisons’ maintenance and welfare of prisoners. “My Attorney-General is advocating a setting up of courts inside the prisons to speed up decongestion and the logistic problems of transporting prisoners from prisons to courts.” However, Odinkalu indicated that the president was wrongly briefed on the issue. He also stated that pre-trial inmates constitute a chunk of the inmates’ population, recalling that the problem began when Buhari was military head of state. Under that repressive era, people were routinely arrested and clamped into jail for minor iffences like wandering. It was the succeeding military administration of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida that scrapped the offence of wandering. Going further, Odinkaku said while prisons in metropolitan areas like Lagos are overcrowded, those in rural areas are not. In tweets, he said: “It’s positive that President Buhari is interested in state of #Nigeria’s prisons. It’d be better if he’s also informed. “President Buhari says prisons’re congested by 90%. Not true. #Nigeria’s prison capacity is about 56,000 & prisoners, less than 60,000. “Metro prisons like Kirikiri, Ikoyi, Port-Harcourt, Agodi, are overcrowded, sometimes by 300-500%. Prisons in non-urban places aren’t. “The main cause of congestion in metro prisons in #Nigeria is pre-trial detention. Crisis began around whn President Buhari was military ruler. “Thirty years ago, Air Commodore Lamba Gwom (late) was Interior Minister, awaiting trial prison population was 60%. Something needed to be done,” he wrote. Continuing, he said: “The Babangida Administration set up Justice Buba Ardo committee to help it deal with prison problem. Buba Ardo died in 1991 and the committee went to bed. “The last President to do any serious work on expanding prison space was Shagari. The prisons he initiated were commissioned by Obasanjo. “#Nigeria has three times more population than UK but nearly two times fewer prisoners and awaiting trials are nearly 80% of the prison population.” Odinkaku blamed magistrates, state judges and police for the overcrowding of the prison, noting that judges in federal courts are not to blame. He particularly blamed state governments for the problem. “Judges are not responsible for #Nigeria’s crisis of awaiting trial detention & can do little about it. Magistrates & Police are. “Most crimes are state crimes. Magistrates, state courts. To realise his intentions on prisons President Buhari should fund Police and speak to state chief judges.”]]>
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