Ayodele Bukunmi would not easily forget how a raging protest against police brutality in Nigeria almost took her life in 2020. She was on her way to visit a friend in the Akoko-Akungba area of Ondo state when police officers whisked her away alongside many angry protesters.
She accused police authorities of forcing her to admit to obtaining flammable materials such as fuel and matches to fuel violence during the protest. They threw her behind bars at the Special Investigation Department of the Ondo state police, but Bukunmi insisted she was just a passerby. The prospects of an investigation to prove her innocence were left bleak as she was transferred to the Akure prison facility a month later.
“They fed us poorly. Our traditional meals were watery beans. We ate rice once in a while, and our regular stew was simply hot pepper, a commonly used local spice, and water. No oil, fish, meat, the typically grounded pepper, or tomatoes,” she told The Liberalist.
During her first few months in prison, a pregnant Bukunmi lost her baby to the poor conditions and ill-treatment she was subjected to. “Even after I was released, I suffered a lot, physically and emotionally. Unknown to me, the miscarriage had affected my womb. But thank God, time and medical efforts helped me take in the second time,” she added.
Just like Bukunmi, Fred Okunnu, a Lagos State resident had a terrible experience at the Nigerian Correctional Service’s facility in the state. Although the prison authorities claimed they treated inmates fairly, Fred has a different story to tell. In an interview with a Premium Times journalist, he described his prison ordeal during the three consecutive times he was sentenced as “horrible.”
Fred, 43, noted that his prison room was six feet long and wide, sheltering about 90 inmates and sometimes, they numbered up to 100 or more. Due to the prison inadequacies characterised by unhygienic conditions, Fred recounted that he was treated for infection at least twice a week; he also said the feeding system was poor. He highlighted the major problems of Nigerian prisons, including overcrowding, poor feeding and inhumane systems.
A United Nations recommendation for a standard prison states that sleeping accommodations for prisoners’ use shall meet all health requirements, including minimum floor space, lighting, heating, ventilation and provision of at least one room per inmate. However, detained locals argued that Nigeria’s correctional facilities are not close to meeting up with these standards. Although the Nigeria Correctional Service recently claimed its facilities are only overcrowded by 37 percent, the country’s prisons are ranked among the seventh-worst prisons in Africa.
“Our prisons are always overcrowded. Because I was still new to the cell, I had no bed. By tradition, only inmates who have served for years have a bed and sometimes a net. I slept to the music of deadly mosquitoes every day,” Bukumi recalled. “The prison room also functions as a restroom which makes the situation worse. We pass out waste products in a corner of the prison because there is no place designed for that purpose.”
The harsh environments breeding inmates bring out the beast in them, fueling crimes instead of curtailing them, experts said. Idowu Owohunwa, a police chief, admitted that the Nigerian prisons have become a training ground for hardened criminals and the reproduction of criminal gangs threatening the society’s peace.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Correctional Centres (NCC) has a reform and rehabilitation program to reintegrate offenders into society. Fred is one of many inmates who left the prison facility; it turned out his detention brought out the worst in him. After his conviction for drug trafficking in 2010, spending six years in prison, Fred committed a worse crime. He was convicted again this time for robbery and conspiracy.
Despite spending 10 years behind bars, Fred retraced his way back to criminal activities. After four years of being locked up, he was remanded again for robbery and further spent two years in jail. His decade-long duration in prison seemed to make no impact as he would later be arrested for allegedly committing murder less than a year after his release.
According to a remark by the Lagos State Police Commissioner, Idowu Owohunwa, the inefficiency of rehabilitation programmes explains the broader failure of the Nigerian prison system. The high rate of recidivism in Nigeria also shows that the system is poorly managed. Reports have indicated that upon leaving prison facilities, several inmates end up committing more crimes, wreaking havoc in the communities after gaining freedom.
Many ex-inmates who spoke to The Liberalist stressed that the only worthwhile rehabilitation initiative the prison offered was skills empowerment. “Other than that, all we received from the prison staff was pure hostility,” ex-inmate Bukunmi mummed, arguing that the majority of the inmates have become cruel due to the violent treatment they received in detention.
“One evening,” she recounted, “We were on our way back to our various cells and were reciting assigned numbers. An inmate who goofed during this process was severely punished.”
“Severe beatings are one of the worst punishments meted out to offending inmates. The prison staff’s hostility is enough to make one monstrous because they handled us like animals. Today, I am still battling the trauma of my prison experience. Every step I took was out of fear because I do not want to be punished,” she added.
Emmanuel Ikule, the Executive Director of Elixir Trust Foundation, explained that the inhumane treatment of inmates in Nigerian correctional centres violates their fundamental human rights in various forms.
According to him, officers in the Nigerian correctional centres constantly violated inmates’ rights to dignity, good health, food and water, family life, proper rehabilitation, and freedom from discrimination.
“Reports of physical and psychological abuse, including torture, beatings, and degrading treatment, violate inmates’ right to dignity and protection from inhumane or degrading treatment under Article 34 of the Nigerian 1999 constitution, Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), and the Anti-Torture Act of 2017,” he said.
“Records of inadequate feeding and degrading treatment infringes inmates’ rights to dignity and protection from inhumane treatment,” said the human rights advocate.”
