A Federal Government’s visitation panel on prisons has said the conditions of the correctional centres and their inmates are appalling and unbearable.
The panel, headed by a former Ekiti State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Olawale Fapohunda (SAN), found that most inmates are languishing in prisons due to lack of legal representation and the inability of the Legal Aid Council (LAC) to cope with the huge number of cases it is handling.
The findings are contained in the report the panel submitted yesterday in Abuja to the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN).
Fapohunda said in the course of the panel’s assignment of auditing prisons, members interfaced with various categories of inmates and found their conditions unpalatable.
The panel chairman said besides the challenge of lacking legal representation, most inmates suffer ailments that the prison authorities could not fund the cost of medication.
He urged the AGF and the Federal Government to help the nation’s prisons and their inmates with a view to alleviating their poor conditions.
Fapohunda also urged the AGF to convene an emergency meeting of Body of Attorneys-General to debate the issue of the deplorable conditions of prisons and inmates and proffer solutions that would make life bearable for the inmates.
“It would have been odd in the extreme if the working group had simply focused on the status of Section 35 inmates and ignored the plight of other inmates deserving urgent attention.
“This category of inmates includes those without legal representation. Indeed, several inmates continue to be kept in detention for periods longer than the maximum period of imprisonment prescribed for their offences because they do not have legal representation.
“The working group found that an alarming high number of inmates in the custodial centres under review were without legal representation. The AGF is invited to note that although the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria is mandated to provide free legal services to inmates without legal representation, it is presently under-resourced and thus barely able to make a significant difference,” he said.
