How kids are locked up with adults in Nigerian prisons

Christian Atsi, 17, Nasir Mukaila, 16, and Miracle Jonah, 19, are among about 20 underage inmates at the Keffi Prison in Nasarawa State. This was known when a justice organisation visited the prison recently.

The three boys were joined by Abubakar Isa, 17, and Ayuba Mohammed Umar, 16, as they were herded out of their cells. Looking unkempt, the teenagers narrated how they found themselves in prison with adults rather than in remand homes.

Each of the boys bears a sad tale about his painful route to the prison. The most pathetic story is that of Atsi, a high school graduate who became a tenant in prison rather than in an academic hostel after fighting with the son of a police officer in Mpape, a suburb of Abuja. The police officer boasted about dealing with him and a Grade 1 Area Court in Mpape endorsed the ‘punishment’ by ordering a prison remand.

An orphan, Atsi lost his parents, who were on their way from their state, Cross River, in a fatal road crash in 2004 on the Keffi-Abuja Highway some kilometres from the prison where he is being detained.

Majority of the kids in the adult prison claimed they were being remanded for offences bordering on public nuisance, fighting, theft, street hawking and breach of peace.

The practice of remanding underage kids in same cells as adults, some of whom are hardened criminals, has been overlooked by law enforcement officials. The situation has worsened the congestion in prisons and recycling of criminality in the society.

For instance, the Keffi Prison, which was built for a capacity of 160, has about 567 inmates, at least 20 of who underage children who represent 3.5 per cent. Of the total prison population, 377, representing 66 per cent, are awaiting trial. On a national scale, this figure could be a huge challenge for criminal justice.

A study in three prisons: Kirikiri (Lagos), Port Harcourt (Rivers) and Enugu (Enugu) by a prison reform organisation, Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE), between December 2016 and January 2017 showed that at least 30 babies were being held in those prisons, owing to their accompanying their mothers to prisons or mothers getting pregnant while there.

The situation came to the fore when the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Olufunmilayo Atilade, on August 1, ordered the release of 80 juveniles who were serving various jail terms in Badagry Prison, which is an adult prison facility.

Several factors, including corruption, absence of juvenile courts and prisons, poor criminal justice administration and inadequate training fuel the situation in Nigeria. There are claims that many of the suspects, who may never be charged for serious offences, are held when they fail to pay fine.

Also, police prosecutors on many occasions fail to come up with the right criminal charges against the minors and they do not request for them to be remanded in remand homes or juvenile homes. The kids also claimed investigators forced them to increase their actual ages to cover up and justify their remand.

Under Article 40 (3) (a) of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, states are encouraged to adopt the age of criminal responsibility suitable for their respective jurisdictions, 18 years is the age recognised as the age of maturity in Nigeria. The Nigerian law recognises that the child lacks criminal responsibility and therefore cannot be prosecuted for any offence.

Section 277 of the Child’s Rights Act 2003 and Section 494 (1) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 define child as “a person who has not attained the age of 18.”

The law makes provisions for identifying the actual age of the defendant, which is by adducing direct evidence relating to age, for example birth certificate. In the absence of such evidence, oral testimony as to age of the accused person by parents or guardians is admissible. The accused may also be examined by a government medical practitioner and issued a certificate stating the accused’s age. This is usually resorted to when the court disbelieves the oral evidence of parents or relations.

A human rights lawyer, Hameed Ajibola Jimoh, citing relevant laws submits that a child cannot be termed as an ex-convict. He added that, “the terms ‘conviction’ and ‘sentence’ shall not be used in relation to a child dealt with in the court.”

The Executive Director of CURE, Sylvester Uhaa, said, “‘The Convention on the Rights of the Child’ clearly states that “the arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time and that every child deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person and in a manner which takes into account the needs of persons of his or her age, and that every child deprived of liberty shall be separated from adults.

“Also, the Child Rights Act 2003 prohibits the incarceration of children in adult prisons. Despite these provisions, some of our courts and law enforcement agencies have continued to treat children in conflict with the law as adults, sometimes coercing them into agreeing that they are adults. It is very sad that the very institutions and persons entrusted with the powers to protect and defend the rights of our children have become the biggest abusers and violators of their rights and dignity without accountability. We must do everything in our powers to expose those behind these acts and hold them accountable,” he said.

But a senior police officer, who spoke with Daily Trust, dismissed the claims saying, “It is not possible that the police would remand someone below the age of 18 in prison custody.”

The spokesman of the Nigerian Prison Service (NPS), Francis Enobore, agreed that a person below 18 ought not to be arraigned in a Magistrates’ Court or be remanded in adult prisons. However, he said there was nothing the prison could do because the defendants came with a remand warrant from court.

“Let the parties establish the real age of the suspects and take them to the magistrate to give the proper directives,” he said.