i woke up this morning to the story of Blessing who was jailed four years ago as a minor because of her alleged theft of a N10,000 nokia phone.
According to Blessing, she bought the phone to start a business centre and the man came around claiming that it was his phone and that it had been stolen, they agrees that she would return it and he would give her her 10k back cos she wasnt aware that the phone was stolen.
the next day, after she had given him her address, he came to her house claiming that his laptop was also stolen as well and got her arrested. the then IPO asked her her age, she said she was 16yrs which makes her a minor, but he said she was lying and wrote 21 yrs for her. and since then, four yrs ago she has been awaiting trial.
Sadly, this is not the first case of this kind, so many cases of inmates in the Kirikiri prison are awaiting trial all beccause they do not have access to lawyers to help them out. There was a case of a lady who came to Lagos to meet her husband who was coming in from abroad and apparently he never made it, she came with her child and had to lodge in a hotel still anticipating his return, the next day he had'nt returned and it was time to pay the bills, she didnt have the money and the owner of the hotel got her arrested and she had been in Kirikiri for some years awaiting trial.
Or is it the case of the girl who was arrested by her "friend" for stealing jewellry she claimed was worth N65,000. And she was just rotting away in prison because she had no one to help. Until a lawyer (my friend) came into the matter and in a matter of weeks, her people who said they couldn't afford to help her, eventually brought a certain sum of money and the lawyer gave it to the girl who dropped the charges and that was how she gained her freedom.
I am just trying to let you know that this kind of unnecessary detention is very rampant. Very minor incidents and people are just detained for nothing.
The lawyers on their own are trying to help, NGO's pump in money to help them get necessary help, also the government. And most times its not a big deal, a little talk here or there goes a long way. i do hope that the law enforcement officers would do something about this. Sometimes they just go on a rampage and arrest people they find loitering about or living under the bridge believing that they are all thieves, at least let them face trial.
what these police officers do, is to take them before magistrates who do not have the jurisdiction to try such cases.
Meanwhile, those who steal large sums of money are never put behind bars.
May God help Nigeria!!!