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

KUJE PRISONINTRODUCTIONKuje prison was built in 1989 and has a capacity of 320, with staff strength of 160. The lock­up asat 10 th November 2006 was 599 inmates, made up of 561 Awaiting Trial Inmates and 38convicts. The cells were overcrowded resulting to a cell meant for 40 people being used by 206inmates. Facilities were overstretched, especially toilets, beds, and mattresses, among others.BEDDINGSThe beds and beddings were not adequate for the inmates. According to Sulaiman Ado, 28 years old,Johnson Onah, 22,Ogbonna Ndubuisi, 27 and, Chukwudi Ezegbunam, 16, inmates rotate sleeping onbeds whereby they take turns to sleep on the few available beds.The officer in charge of Kuje prison, Kabir Umar Funtua, reports on overcrowding in the cells have beenmade to the Prison Headquarters, Abuja, and that he was informed that a contract had been awardedfor the erection of a two­storey building in the prison yard to provide extra accommodation for inmates.HEALTHCARE FACILITIESKuje Prison has a hospital, which was commissioned on 30 th March 2006. There are two medicaldoctors attached to the prison hospital. They are Dr. Idowu Ajayi and Dr Ahmed Yusuf Shaba. Therewas no psychiatrist in the prison hospital; the human rights monitors who visited the prison to asses itscondition observed that psychiatric cases were not appropriately attended to. An example wasAbubakar Mohammed aged 25 who had been in prison custody since 8 th July 2005 on a charge ofculpable homicide. According to Umar Funtua, Justice Bulama of Kuje High Court on learning of themental state of Abubakar, directed that he be taken to Kaduna Psychiatric Hospital. However, up till thedate of visit, Abubakar Mohammed was still incarcerated in Kuje prison. When asked why this was so inspite of Justice Bulama’s directives, the officer in charge of the prison said that the judge’s directive wasverbal and that he needed a written document in order to enforce it.FEEDINGThe kitchen is modern and the cooking utensils are fairly neat. However, the food is not covered aftercooking. The monitors asked the welfare officers how they coped with feeding the large number ofinmates since the lock­up is far beyond the capacity and the prison officers explained that the prisonauthority takes the excess number into consideration when supplying the food. An inmate, SulaimanAdo, 28, reported that the quality of the food was fair but that the taste was below standard.RECREATIONAL FACILITIESKuje prison has recreational facilities such as a football field and badminton courts. However, due to theovercrowding, many inmates said they do not have opportunity to use any of the recreational facilitiesavailable.AWAITING TRIAL INMATESOut of the 599 inmates housed in Kuje Prison as at 10 th November 2006, 561 are awaiting trial inmates.Out of this number, some have been in detention for periods ranging from 2 to 6 years. Reasons for thelong period of awaiting trial range from delays in forwarding DPPs legal advice on their case files to lossof case files and the holding charge practice whereby certain trials are commenced in court whichordinarily do not have jurisdiction to try the cases.Ogbonna Ndubuisi, aged 28 was remanded in prison custody by the Kuje High Court 13 Abuja sinceSeptember 23, 2002. He was charged with armed robbery and he has been awaiting trail.35