Stakeholders, including the National Judicial Council (NJC), UNICEF, and the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, have called for the rehabilitation of young offenders instead of sentencing them to serve time in correctional facilities.

At the second public hearing of the Independent Investigative Panel on the Alleged Corruption, Abuse of Power, Torture, Cruel, Inhumane, and Degrading Treatment against the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), held on Friday in Abuja, the stakeholders made an urgent call for the implementation of strategies necessary for the rehabilitation, reformation, and reintegration of inmates in custodial centers, with priority on non-violent juveniles.

UNICEF representative, Nkiru Maduechesi, who spoke, noted that findings by the agency show that the number of children and underage persons in Nigerian prisons is alarming.

She said that on average, every year, 26,000 children and young persons (that is, persons under the age of 21) are placed in correctional facilities, and 74 percent of them are on Awaiting Trial.

“We all know that the unique thing about children is that their lives cannot wait, and as they are denied education and health in custody, the lives of these children can’t wait as they are growing. If we don’t help them, they would have missed out in life and the opportunities it presents.”

She, therefore, recommended closer collaboration with all stakeholders to adopt swift rehabilitation methods to uplift these children and make them better humans.

Maduechesi pointed out that “this problem is beyond just one ministry or one agency; it is multisectoral. How can we bring and form collaboration with the Ministry of Women Affairs, the Nigeria Police Force—which is the gateway through which children come into the correctional service In the first place? If a child is not apprehended, the child possibly will not be in a custodial center.

“Regarding the challenge about health, sometimes the gentleman on this side (correctional officers) is helpless because the document presented by the police would say that the child is 18 years, but in reality, the child is not 18 years.

“The issue of the law for establishing foster institutions in Nigeria needs to be revisited because that law is as old as 1962. That’s when it was enacted, and it hasn’t undergone any review. So, I think that if we have a good law, it will call for good policy and practices.”

Chairperson of the panel and Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Interior, Dr. Magdalene Ajani, noted the importance of educating inmates in custody. She said the NCoS is making progress in this regard due to the strong partnerships it has been able to forge with critical stakeholders such as the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), who have been picking up some of the educational bills.

She urged the management of the NCoS to apply for the recruitment of teachers to teach skills and other handwork to the inmates.

“We are doing well in education in the sense that we have collaboration from all the relevant educational centers, be it WAEC, NECO, Open University. They are ready to collaborate with us, rendering the services, and picking up the bills of the inmates so that they don’t spend money.”

Secretary of the panel and the Founder of Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA), Dr. Uju Agomoh, explained that two thematic areas of discussion for the panel were the issues of vulnerable persons found in places of detention, specifically correctional centers, and the other issues dealing with women, the mentally ill, and those with disabilities in custodial centers.

She said there is an urgent need to “implement Sections 33 and 34 of the Nigerian Correctional Service Act as well as the provisions found under Section 13 and Section 14 of the Nigerian Correctional Service Act as it relates to the subject matter.

“It was clearly mentioned that there is a need to ensure that the relevant processes are put in place with the relevant organizations to ensure that the wordings of these provisions are implemented.”

The representative of the Acting Controller General of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Ibrahim Idris, said the service is ready to take up all observations and partner with relevant stakeholders to implement the provisions of the NCoS Act 2019. (The Guardian)