A Portharcout based attorney, Barr Sylvester Adaka, has said that prison congestion being witnessed across prisons in the country is due to the fact that the Police keeps charging frivolous matters to court.
Barr Adaka made this known during a brief chat with TPCN’s Okenyi Kenechi on Friday in Portharcourt.
He said that prison congestion has become a national problem that needs to be addressed properly. The lawyer also maintained that the Nigerian Bar Association, the umbrella body of lawyers in Nigeria, has a major role to play to ensure that prisons are decongested.
It would be recalled that the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo, had said that those who pass through the Portharcourt prison come out as animals.
According to reports, the prison was built by the colonial masters to accommodate 800 inmates. However, the prison houses over 5000 inmates, more than 3000 of which are on awaiting trial.
According to Barr Adaka, Magistrates should also understand that they their courts are courts of summary jurisdiction.
He said: “It is a national problem but the NBA has a role. The problem of congestion of prison is not a problem of NBA alone. It starts with the Police, the Judiciary, and the Bar.
“I will say it starts with the Police because if Policemen do not charge frivolous matters to court, there will be fewer people sent to prison on awaiting trial.
”There are two many frivolous matters that police bring to court. You find where two people have a simple quarrel in their yard and one person is strong with Policemen and the next thing is that he brings Police and arrests his neighbor.
“By the time it gets to court and the neighbor is too indigent to hire a lawyer, you find the person languishing in awaiting trial.
“After 3 months, you find that they have settled out of court and he is released. That is part of the problem.
“Secondly, for the Magistrate, as a young lawyer, a saw Magistrate summarily deal with some matters that came to court.
“The Magistrates in Magistrate courts should realize that their court is a court of summary jurisdiction. So they are empowered by law to summarily deal with some issues.
“For instance, I have seen a Magistrate look into a matter and ask the Policeman “did you investigate this matter”? He found out that the Policeman did not investigate the matter because he never visited any of the scenes mentioned in the statement and right there and then, he discharged the accused persons who would have ended up awaiting trial.
“I remember that the case was that of a driver and his conductor who were found loitering late at night after parking their bus.
“The Policeman didn’t find out where the bus was parked. He didn’t ask questions. He just detained them and charged them to court for vagrancy, under the vagrancy law.
“Had the magistrate said ok! let’s hear them, read the charge, they would have landed in prison custody.
Barr Adaka also believes that the Judiciary has not played enough role in educating the Police on the kind of cases they should charge to court.
He said that there should be annual seminars between the Police, the Judiciary and Magistrate so that issues that might lead to thousands of people languishing in the awaiting trial list will be properly dealt with.
“Judiciary has not found it worthy educating the Police on issues that they should bring to court.
“There should be annual seminars where the Police, the Judiciary, and the Magistrate will be involved so that these issues will be properly conversed
He said that if the issues of educating the Police on how to approach the courts with cases are properly looked into, the issue of prison congestion will drop drastically.
The lawyer said that the issue of the order of elections is being over-politicized saying that elections should be held in any order INEC decides to hold it.
He maintained that the most important thing is not the order but the process that will ensure a free and fair election.
“If it is going to be free and fair, in whatever order it will be held, let it be” he said.
He also chimed on the permeation of mainstream politics into NBA affairs. He said that the intrusion of mainstream politics into the Association’s affairs has affected the discharge of justice in Nigeria.
“Mainstream politics has over-permeated NBA. It has gone deep into the association. Unlike the past when lawyers stood up for justice and what is right, NBA has become too political. So we are not doing enough to ensure the protection of justice and fair play. We are not doing enough.
“I think that the NBA should stand up more to condemn injustice, stand up more to condemn human right abuses. I think that they should do a little more.
