The Pandora’s Box Of Awaiting Trial In Nigeria

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, Pandora’s box is
“something that creates a lot of new problems that you did not
expect.” It follows with an explanatory sentence: ‘Sadly, his
reforms opened up a Pandora’s box of domestic problems’.

It was reported some weeks back in the media that 70% of inmates
in Nigerian prisons are those awaiting trial, while the remaining
30% are inmates already convicted by a court of law in the country.
The import of this statistics is the unfortunate fact that
budgetary allocation meant for rehabilitation of convicts, is
majorly consumed by inmates awaiting trial, rather than offenders
already convicted and serving jail terms.

Which begs the question, how did Nigeria open this Pandora’s box
of awaiting trial bedeviling our rehabilitation centres? To the
surprise of many, this scourge begins from the police station. Once
a suspect is arrested and detained in police cell on the suspicion
of committing any offence, and no relative comes to the station to
apply for police bail, such suspect is then arraigned before a
nearby court of competent jurisdiction. Also when charges are read
to the defendant, and plea taken, if no one is available to apply
for court bail on behalf of the defendant, the defendant is whisked
away to a nearby prison to await trial for the alleged offence.

And that’s how awaiting trial begins in Nigeria; the defendant
is then brought from prison to attend to his/her trial on each
adjourned date, and knowing the way our legal system works, such
defendant could end up spending five (5) years in jail for an
offence that carries maximum punishment of three (3) years. To add
salt to injury, such defendant spends those five years in jail not
as a convict as provided for in the country’s budget, but a mere
inmate with no budgetary allocation from the national cake.

This sad reflection of our prison system opens up certain
inadequacies in our crime investigation that results in more
unsolved crime, than solved crime. Firstly, the impression one gets
from the percentage of awaiting trial inmates is that
investigations most often come to halt once a suspect is taken out
of police custody, and when the appropriate authority responsible
to investigate a crime shies, away from such duty, when a case is
transferred to court, leaving court’s hands tied in the
dispensation of justice because of the little facts placed before
them, and the long period of time it takes for a case diary to
reach the court for effective adjudication.

Secondly, there should be no reason why the unavailability of a
relative on behalf of a suspect in police custody should translate
to prison time. By the provision of Section 28(1)(c) of the
Administration of Criminal Justice Law (2017), where a suspect
cannot afford the services of a legal representative, a legal
professional either in the Legal Aid Council or one in humanitarian
legal services ought be recommended or referred to the suspect, or
notify the next of kin, or relative of the suspect at no cost to
the suspect. This way, simple offences that have no business in
maximum incarceration would be reduced to the barest minimum,
thereby leading to prison decongestion.

Thirdly, there ought to be a provision in the law permitting
magistrates/judges/justices to suo motu grant bail to defendants
arraigned before them on simple offences without legal
representation. The courts ought to be empowered to summarily try a
first-time offender appearing before them on charges of simple
offences.

To my mind, a closer look at the reason for the outrageous
number of awaiting trial inmates in prison would reveal ignorance
on the part of most of the defendants of their human right as
provided for in the constitution.

It is up to the justice sector, and ministers in the temple of
justice to protect the rights of these individuals even when they
appear oblivious of their human rights as enshrined in the grund
norm of the land. It is not enough to talk about this scourge and
stop there, immediate action is required by all stakeholders
involved as millions of Nigerian youth are wasting their talent,
and energy rotting away in a cubicle they ought ordinarily not to
be.

The Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee with
powers to consider all returns made to the Chief Judge of a state
for purposes of ensuring expeditious disposal of cases ought to be
given life and mandate to operate as provided for by the law. This
would make all relevant authority in the administration of justice
to make reports to the committee, thereby giving a true picture of
the situation on ground, and how best to tackle the scourge of
awaiting trial inmates already serving jail time without
sentence.

Godspeed!

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