Conditions in Nigerian prisons are appalling with ”forgotten inmates” locked away for years without trial simply because their files have been lost, Amnesty International said on Wednesday.
”The circumstances under which the Nigerian government locks up its inmates are appalling. Many inmates are left for years awaiting trial in filthy overcrowded cells with children and adults often held together,” the rights group said.
”Some prisoners are called ‘forgotten inmates’ as they never go to court and nobody knows how much longer their detention will last, simply because their case files are lost,” Amnesty researcher Aster van Kregten said.
An Amnesty delegation recently spent two weeks in Nigeria visiting 10 prisons in the states of Enugu, Kano and Lagos and in the Federal Capital Territory around Abuja.
It called on the Nigerian government to improve conditions and to ensure all prisoners are tried within a reasonable time.
Inmates often have to sleep two to a bed or on the floor, while sanitation is grossly inadequate. ”Disease is rampant in the filth and close quarters,” it said.
It also highlighted the problem of protracted pre-trial detention, noting that three out of every five people in Nigeria’s prisons are awaiting trial, often for years.
”Protracted pre-trial detention is so commonplace in Nigeria that periodic presidential and gubernatorial amnesties are routinely extended to those who have spent more time in prison awaiting trial than the maximum sentence they could receive if eventually convicted,” it said.
Children under 18 were held together with adults in four of the largest prisons visited. In Kuje Prison, 30 boys — some as young as 11 — shared a dormitory with more than 175 men. — Sapa-AFP