The University of Abuja Law Clinic Releases 36 Pre-Trial Inmates

Great excitement, celebration and joy hit the University of Abuja, on the 3rd of March 2014, as the clinic team successfully secured the release of 36 awaiting trial detainees, who had little or no hope of accessing justice and getting released from the confines of the Kuje Prison. This milestone achievement was made possible through the doggedness and diligence of the law clinicians backed by the strong support and leadership of the Clinic Coordinator, Barrister Nasiru Mukhtar and the profound support of NULAI. This is indeed is an encouragement to do more for the society.

Awaiting Trial Detainees; when you hear this, what comes to mind is those who have been confined to the prisons, waiting to be tried by a court. Well, I have discovered there is more to an awaiting trial detainee in Nigeria than the name suggests. The experience with the 36 awaiting trial detainees from the Kuje prison who were accused of public nuisance, speaks about the decay in the mechanisms to our access to justice, which encompasses the police, the court and the prison system.

It will interest one to know that these awaiting trial detainees, face such problems as not having access to a legal representation (which according to section 8 & 10 of the Legal Aid Act 2011 should be provided for those who can't afford it), non availability of a prosecutor, and baseless accusations with no proper investigation.

But for the intervention of the University of Abuja Law Clinic, these 36 awaiting trial detainees would have been, maybe forgotten within the high walls of the Kuje Prisons for a long time, and their prime age wasted, as is the case of several other awaiting trial detainees. On the 29th of January 2014, the law clinic approached the Kuje prison in a bid to help some awaiting trial detainees who have been facing certain difficulties that deterred them from their right to access to a fair hearing before a judge. Members of the Law Clinic interviewed a handful of them and discovered that there were 36 persons accosted for public nuisance cases. These people were arrested some months ago for sleeping in uncompleted buildings because they were homeless. For a living, they do menial jobs like scavenging waste bins, water hawking, shoe repairing and the likes. Obviously, a water hawker who makes an average of N400 daily would scarcely afford a decent meal, talk less of affording any form of shelter. Although they were granted bail for a sum each (not less than N5,000) and were asked to provide a surety who is a civil servant or who owns a landed property in Abuja. It beats one's understanding how a person with no roof over his head, and no form of savings would manage to get a surety with a landed property in Abuja. This could even encourage such persons to vie into options of becoming political thugs or joining terrorist sects.

The Law Clinic contacted some pro bono lawyers who represented the 36 awaiting trial detainees at the Wuse Zone 2 Magistrate Court and also contacted some relatives of the detainees, who confirmed that they had been experiencing difficulties in getting the requirements for the bail, because they were people with no relatives who were civil servants nor owned landed properties in Abuja.

On the 18th of February which was the hearing date in court, out of 36 persons, only 5 were conveyed to court by the prison officials for hearing. The Magistrate had to adjourn the case to the 3rd of march 2014. Again, on the 3rd of March, the same problem repeated itself and only 19 accused persons were conveyed to court. The prison officials complained of logistic problems in transporting them at once. Graciously, the Magistrate had to stand down the case, stressing that the law does not allow him to deal with them separately, since they were arrested together. The remaining persons were finally conveyed to court after about some hours, and the most lenient magistrate acquitted the 36 accused persons after the counsels made their submissions. The Magistrate however, strictly stated that they all have to return to their various states where they could easily find accommodations.