Group raises alarm on imprisonment of Nigerians over petty crimes

A Group, Hope Behind Bars Africa, has expressed dismay that most ‘awaiting trial’ inmates in Nigeria languish in custodial facilities for petty crimes like loitering or hawking.

The human rights and criminal justice reform organisation said cases of such incarceration include civil matters, like disagreements between business partners that were given criminal colourations.

Executive Director of Hope Behind Bars Africa, Mrs. Funke Adeoye, revealed that 40 per cent of cases handled by the organisation were simple matters.

Adeoye said Nigeria’s prison population was 76,982, as of May 30, 2023, and that 63.9 per cent of the number, spread across 240 custodial facilities, consists of awaiting trial inmates.

She made the disclosure in Abuja, yesterday, during launch of the group’s five-year impact report and strategic plan.

She said: “Forty per cent of the cases we have handled are actually simple cases. Cases like people arrested for hawking, loitering and a lot of cases, where the sanction is less than three years. We also find, very frequently, people arrested by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad for armed robbery. But when we go into the nitty-gritty of the case, we find there is no evidence. Most of the cases stall for years on end, because there is really no evidence against the person on trial.”

Adeoye added: “In the past five years, our organisation has dedicated major aspects of its work to providing free legal services to indigent pre-trial detainees, engaging in welfare, empowerment, reformation and reintegration interventions.

“Hope Behind Bars Africa, having recognised this challenge, decided to leverage its legal network to foster access to justice. We started out, directly representing inmates for free, here, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and expanded to Kano and Edo states. Currently, we have a network of lawyers in Kaduna, Niger, Nasarawa, Edo, Kano and FCT. We have represented 420 indigent pre-trial detainees, so far.”