Nigeria and jail break
By Funmi Falobi
Senior Reporter, Lagos
Jail break is gradually becoming a common occurrence in Nigeria. On December 7, no fewer than 270 inmates out of the 323 of the Minna Medium Prison, Niger State, escaped after an attack by six gunmen. Report had it that during the attack, a prison official was wounded by the gunmen who subsequently made away with arms and bullet proof vests meant for prison warders.
The incident came barely a week after a similar attack on the Federal Prison on Afao-Ekiti Road in Ado- Ekiti, during which 320 of the 446 inmates escaped. A Prison warder was allegedly shot during the attack while the assailants also killed 20 security dogs.
The incident has however, brought to the fore the issue of security in the nation’s prisons and the role of government to secure the lives of prison officials and inmates. There is no doubt that Nigerian prisons need to be overhauled as many have also called for reforms in the sector. Often time, the issue of congestion has been used as reason for jail break but many of the prisons are eye sour as they lack modern facilities, inmates live in poor condition without any welfare while many of them await prosecution after spending years. Also, condition of work is not conducive for officials who are also exposed to risk while carrying out their job.
In his reaction, a constitutional and human rights lawyer, Fred Agbaje said the regular jail break in the country is a reflection of culture of impunity that pervades the nation. “My simple take on the daily, weekly, jail break is simply a reflection of culture of impunity that has pervaded Nigeria society, especially when you have a government of I-don’t-care, a government that sees nothing and does nothing, even the one they see, they pretend they don’t see it. Corruption is celebrated in government because it is part of the government – impunity. Look at the oil fraud how many have been prosecuted, how much has EFCC retrieved from the stolen money and the government is not raising any eyebrow. How then do you want it to raise eyebrow on jail break? ,he asked.
Agbaje however recommended solution based on immediate and remote causes in the sector. For him, “there should be total surgical and comprehensive reorganization of the prison services and this must include sacking of all comptrollers in Nigeria. Those that will be left must be subject to massive transfer from their present base. On no account should any prison warder stay in one station beyond two to three years, anything beyond that should make them become thin god and chief conspirator with inmates. Finally, in America and Britain prisoners who have shown exemplary good behaviour are allowed social amenities – telephone, television but Nigeria situation differs and hence such social amenities must never be given to them because they conspire with their mastermind with telephones.”
