Out of the 67,000 prisoners held in various Nigerian prisons, those awaiting trial make up 72 per cent of the figure, recently released data showed.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC, which released the statistic,on Tuesday, August 30, lamented that these awaiting trial inmates (ATIs) wallowed in detention on an average of 3.7 years between arrest and actual commencement of trial, Leadership reports.
Findings have also revealed that 95 per cent of riots, escapes and jailbreaks are perpetrated by this category of inmates.To this end, the federal government and the UNODC have moved to drastically reduce the unsavoury figure in order to reduce prison congestion and halt future jailbreaks in the country.
UNODC country representative, Christina Albertin, gave the hint at a national conference on ‘Effective Implementation of Non-Custodial (Alternatives to Imprisonment) Measures in Nigeria,’ held in Abuja, yesterday.
Albertin, who spoke at the conference jointly organised by the Nigeria Prisons Service, International Corrections and Prisons Association (ICPA) and PRAWA, but sponsored by the European UNODC, said that as of August 29, 2016, the total inmate population stood at 63,000, with 17,897 convicted (28%) and 45, 263 awaiting trial inmates (72%).
According to her, the initiative was aimed at supporting the efforts of the Nigerian government to improve justice delivery through effective coordination and cooperation among justice sector institutions with improved legal and policy framework, among others.
Albertin explained that though the project was being funded by the European Union, it was presently to be implemented at the federal level and in nine states of the federation.
She listed the focal states to include Anambra, Bayelsa, Benue, Cross River, Imo, Kastina, Lagos, Osun and Yobe.
According to her, backlogs and undue delays in the trial of criminal cases and unresolved civil disputes remain key problems in the justice sector, and are some of the main causes of the very high numbers of awaiting trail detainees in prisons across Nigeria.
