Prison Congestion: FG to pay N500m for release of 4,000 prison inmates; ‘Use N500m fine for ‘inmates’ welfare’_ Falana tells minister

A senior lawyer and human right activist, Femi Falana, SAN, Saturday urged the Minister of Interior, Mr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, to review the Federal Government’s proposed plan to pay N500 million fines for 4,000 convicts across the country.

Falana, in a statement reacting to the comment of interior minister, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo commended the minister for his plan to decongest the prisons in the country but said the N500 million earmarked for payment of fines should be spent on the welfare of inmates in the prisons.

He said: “The Minister of Interior, Mr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo has announced his immediate plan to decongest the correctional centres in the country by ensuring the payment of the fines imposed on not less than 4,000 convicts by various courts in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT. Having concluded the arrangement, the Minister disclosed that the fines of N500 million would be paid within the next four weeks.

While the Interior Minister deserves commendation for the initiative we are compelled to call for a review of the plan. The N500 million earmarked for payment of fines should be spent on the welfare of inmates in the correctional centres while alternative decongestion policies are considered. Specifically, the Minister should request the President and the various state Governors to exercise their prerogative of mercy by granting pardon to the 4,000 convicts on grounds of impecuniosity to facilitate their immediate release from custody.

“It is on record that the Federal Government had released 7,813 inmates from the Nigeria Correctional Centres across the country during the outbreak of COVID-19 to curb the spread of the virus among inmates. The convicts and awaiting trial inmates were granted amnesty and released on the orders of former President Muhammadu Buhari as part of the prison decongestion policy of the Federal Government.

“The Minister may also wish to request the Chief Justice of Nigeria and Chief Judges of all the States and the Federal Capital Territory to visit the correctional centres and exercise their powers under the Criminal Justice (Release from Custody) (Special Provisions) Act by ordering the release of all inmates, whose detention is either manifestly unlawful, or who have been in custody, whether on remand or otherwise, for periods longer than the maximum period of imprisonment which they could have served had they been convicted.”

Recall Nigeria’s Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji Ojo, Tunji-Ojo had disclosed on Thursday in an interview with Arise TV that the Federal Government will pay the fines of over 4,000 inmates costing over five hundred million naira to ensure their release as they have remained in correctional facilities because of their inability to pay these fines.

He revealed that he has already set up committees to figure out the reasons for the congestion in Nigeria’s correctional centres and how to reduce the numbers.

“Immediately I assumed office, the first thing I did was to set up a small committee to be able to review the situation of our correctional centres, vis-à-vis the inmates as they are, and we discovered that over 4,000 of these inmates, as I’ve said before, are still in custody due to inability to pay fines.” He said to Arise TV on Thursday, October 19.

” We looked at how much they owe, total fine is about total of five hundred and something million, and I can tell you we’ve gone very far dealing with the private sector in terms of CSR and etcetera, putting this money together.

“And I’m sure that in the next three weeks or one month, four weeks maximum, because I like to be held responsible for what I say, so let me say in the next four weeks, even though we are looking at doing it before then, but I’m giving myself a buffer. So, in the next four weeks, by the grace of God, we will have been able to pay those fines of over 4,000 people which will reduce us from the present almost 79,000 inmates to about 75,000 inmates.”

“We must also understand that when it comes to decongestion of prison, it’s not an entirely ministry of interior thing. Yes, ministry of interior must play the lead, but obviously we know the office of the Attorney General, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, we have spoken about it, and we are going to work very well together because you cannot just open your gate and say people should go. We must look at setting up that sort of inter-ministerial relationship, which we are already working on to be able to expedite cases based on Administration of Criminal Justice System, ACJS. So, we are already looking in that particular direction.”

“Also, to further decongest, one thing that is within our purview as ministry of interior is to be able to activate what makes our correctional centres correctional centres, which is the non-custodial responsibility of the correctional service. And what is that? It’s obviously to decongest our correctional centres. For instance, I will give you an example, The situation of the correctional service is very worrisome, for instance, in the Lagos command, of all the correctional centres, in total, the correctional centres were built for like 4,800 if I get my statistics right, but today, we have over 9,000 inmates, so that’s over a 100% in Lagos alone

“So, it means that we have to look at the short-term solution, activate that part of the law that gives the Nigerian correctional service the powers to engage in non-custodial services. So, those are parts of the things that we are already doing, and yes, a committee is already in place.”

The minister then said that once all these plans are executed, the ministry will be able to reduce the congestion in correctional centres by around 60%-70%.