THE STATE OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN NIGERIA 2005 - UNDP Nigeria ...

Women and ChildrenThe prison does not admit female prisoners. The prison is also not expected to admit juveniles, but thecourts sent juveniles to ikoyi prison. The prison authority in such cases used their discretion to put suchinmates in a cell different from adult inmates’ cells.Death Row InmatesIkoyi Prison being a medium security prison does not admit long term convicts. Accordingly, there areno condemned prisoners on death row or life term servers in the prison.Access to JusticeAccording to the prison welfare department, many of the prisoners lack legal representation due to lackof funds. However, the Legal Aid Council, the NBA and other Non Governmental Organizations doprovide limited free legal services to the inmates.Visitors’ BookThe Officer who was in custody of the visitors’ book was not around as at the time the prison wasvisited. However the prison officials informed the monitor that, the Chief Judge of Lagos State visitedthe prison in 2005 and the Federal Attorney General also visited the prison in September 2006. Thevisits have not yielded results in form of release of prisoners that had spent long periods in prisonawaiting trial or improvement in the welfare of the inmates or prison facilities.Staff WelfareThe prison staff complained of poor conditions of service and poor working environment. The prisonlacks decent offices for the staff. The staff was overworked due to overcrowded condition of the prison.Staff salaries are very poor and they have not been paid for the last 3 months as at 10 th November2006 when the prison was visited by the monitor. The prison officials also claimed that they pay fortheir uniforms.Recommendations on Ikoyi Prison.1. Government should as a matter of urgency, commence reconstruction and face lifting work on theprison.2. Government should provide the necessary facilities to cope with the needs of inmates.3. Adequate drugs and facilities should be provided for the prison clinic.4. Government should provide the Ikoyi prison with an ambulance to transport sick inmates to thehospitals.KADUNA CONVICT PRISONIntroductionThe Kaduna Convict Prison was built in 1915 to accommodate 547 prisoners. However, as at 8 thNovember 2006, the prison had a lock up of 916 inmates both convicts and awaiting trial. Of the916 inmates, 627 are awaiting trial inmates, 161 are convicts, 93 are condemned inmates and 35are serving life imprisonment. 18 of the inmates are females,14 are awaiting trial, 3 are convicts while 1is a condemned prisoner.23