Last Tuesday, Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Ayotunde Philips, freed 233 inmates awaiting trial in both the Medium and Maximum prisons in Kirikiri, Lagos during a visit to the facilities? as part of activities marking the start of the 2012/2013 Legal Year. In this report, Paul Dada spoke with some of the freed inmates who revealed how they ended up incarcerated.
The “Thank you ma,” “God bless you ma” and allied appreciative expressions from the freed inmates were simply deafening.
Although there was no decibel measuring equipment in sight, many at the Kikikiri Medium and Maximum Prisons last Tuesday would say that a World record of a kind must have been set by the freed awaiting trial inmates of these correctional facilities as they raised their voices to high heaven. The freed men were thanking the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Ayotunde Philips, who set them free on that fateful day.??
Her Lordship was certainly unaccustomed to such ear-splitting cacophony that greeted her pronouncement freeing the 233 inmates incarcerated in the prisons for periods ranging from four to 13 years.
Among the freed inmates, 130 were from the Maximum Prison while 103 were from the Minimum prison. At the Medium Security Prisons, there were 2,502 inmates out of which 2, 378 were awaiting trial.
The nation’s prisons are notoriously overcrowded and this development appeared to have informed Justice Philips’ decision to free the inmates after a thorough review of their cases with a view to giving respite to the unjustly goaled.
She said: “This is to release those who are illegally or unjustly kept in prison. There is one popular maxim which says it is better to let 10 guilty men go free than to let one innocent one be punished.”
And going by their narratives, many of the freed inmates were either illegally remanded in prison for no crime whatsoever or have been incarcerated for far too long for the statutory jail terms they would have received if swiftly tried and sentenced.
One of them, Saminu Lawal, a 32-year-old printer, alleged that he was only a victim of police conspiracy. Lawal told LEADERSHIP WEEKEND: “I have been here since 2000.? They charged me with armed robbery. But I am not an armed robber.
My friend and I were coming from an all-night party at Ajah, at about 6:00a.m.? and we were accosted by the police who said we were armed robbers.
“They arrested and detained us. We called our family members who were equally detained for a while. They asked us to pay N200,000 for our freedom and later they reduced it N120, 000.
“Since we were not able to respond in time, they transferred us to the State Criminal Investigation Department, (SCID), Panti, Yaba. There, I spent two months. They later took us to the Magistrate’s Court at Igbosere where we were ordered to be remanded in prison custody pending the advice of the Lagos State Director of Prosecution.”
Mr. Seun Banjo told a similar tale. He said: “I was arrested for robbery. I went to a club at Ebute- Metta only to enjoy myself and did not commit any crime.? But the police came to raid the club.
“They took me to the State CID at Panti. They searched me and beat me. They were asking me of who I knew in that area where the raid was carried out. I said I was only a visitor to that area and so did not know anybody there.
“They still held me and joined me with three other persons who I did not know. They said we were accomplices. They took me to the Magistrate’s Court in Ebute-Metta.
“It was at that court I was ordered to be remanded in prison in 2007. My relatives abandoned me as they said I was troublesome but I thank God that last month they started getting concerned about me.”
“I used to be wayward. I loved clubbing but now prison has reformed me. I am now a new creature. I am now born again. People from the Catholic Church and the Liberty Church came to preach to me. I am now trying to get into the National Open University. I completed my secondary school education in Ibadan before I came to Lagos.”
Similarly, 34-year-old trailer driver turned Kirikiri inmate, Mr. Emmanuel Etim, said he only ended up in jail by sheer misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
His words: “I was in the Medium Prison in 2008 but was transferred to the Maximum in February 2009. I was a trailer driver and around 7 p.m. I was trying to replace the tyre of my trailer at Amuwo-Odofin
“Then I saw people running, only for the police to come and arrest me. At the police station I was asked to pay N20,000 to regain my freedom. I said I did not have such money.
“People from my company came to the police station. They also refused to pay the money. I was taken to a Magistrate’s Court in Apapa where I pleaded not guilty. But the court ordered that I be remanded in prison.
“I am married with two children who are in Calabar now. I myself will go to Calabar since I have been released.”
Keeping bad company was the undoing of Shehu Onitilo, a 20-year-old mechanic. Although claiming to be above board himself, Onitilo owned up to cavorting with criminal elements, which eventually landed him in prison.
He said: “They first arrested my girlfriend. So I had to show up. My friends were robbers and they used to give me a share of their loot though I did not actively participate in their operations.
“They had gone to rob and the police were looking for them. So they asked me about them and I claimed I did not know them. So they just brought me here.
“I have learnt a lot. I used to be so stubborn but now I have changed.”
Another freed inmate, 37-year-old commercial motorcyclist, Tajudeen Akinjagunla, evidently landed in Kirikiri prisons by precarious association with criminals.
He told LEADERSHIP WEEKEND: “I gave my okada (motorcycle) to a friend to use. He went to give a ride to someone who snatched a handbag from an individual.
“So the police arrested the three of us and they brought all of us here. My mother used to come and visit me but she died during the last Ramadan. But my younger sister has shown concern for me.’’
But some of the prisoners left out of the leniency gesture lamented their fate to LEADERSHIP WEEKEND as the freed awaiting trial inmates basked in the euphoria of their new-found freedom.
William Owodo is a convicted murderer serving a life jail term at the Kirikiri Maximum Prison. Initially sentenced to death by hanging, Owodo’s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by the Lagos state governor.
But having spent 18 years behind bars, Owodo thinks that he has atoned for his heinous crime enough to be set free.
An obviously bitter Owodo said: “They are releasing those who will still come back to prison. But some of us who have been condemned have gone to the National Open University and are trained in one vocation or the other. We have shown remorse and there is no way we will go back to crime. But we are still here.”?
52-year-old Edet Okon is a convicted armed robber who has been in prison since 1985. He pleaded with government to show mercy him and others in his shoes.
“I am the head of tailors in prison. I train other tailors. I promise I will not go back to crime if I am released,” he pleaded.