The residents of the South-South have demanded for remand homes in Cross River and Akwa Ibom and decry the deplorable condition of Rivers facility.

The residents made the remark while reacting to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) survey on the condition of remand homes.

They also condemned detaining children, who were at conflict with the law, in the same facility with adults in the correctional centers and called for separate home for them.

Speaking in Calabar, Cross River, Mr Kebe Ikpi, Coordinator, Child Protection Network (CPN) in the state, explained that the facility, constructed by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in Calabar, was occupied by the Police.

He said that the NDDC handed over the remand home structure to the Ministry of Social Welfare and added that the police up till date had refused to relinquish it in spite of efforts made to retrieve it.

‘’One of the former Commissioners of Police promised to vacate his men within two weeks but within that two weeks, he was transferred out of the state and similar thing has happened over the years.’’

Ikpi said that the situation contributed to child offenders being detained in the same facility with adults in the correctional centers which, he added, was not ideal.

He explained that the idea of a remand home was a space where a child offender could grow, get counseling, learn a skill, and get rehabilitated, so that he or she could return to the society better.

He, however, described as unfortunate the state’s inability to have a remand home even when it could afford it for the child offenders.

Similarly, Dr Blessing Ntamu, a Psychologist with the University of Calabar, recalled that the state had remand homes many years ago but at present, it had none.

Ntamu, who is also a Gender Based Violence (GBV) expert, said that a remand home was like a correctional facility for children, aiming at behavioral modifications.

She said the home was very important as it was wrong to put children in the same contraption with adult criminals while they were still in their formative years.

“The whole idea of a remand home is to make the children better before reintroducing them into the society after they have been initially found wanting by the law.

“This facility is very important to have in a city like Calabar where you have street children, many of whom are delinquent because it will help to change some of them for the better in the society.

Similarly, CSP Philomena Modor, Officer in charge of Gender Unit in the state Police Command, said that child offenders were sent to temporary shelters like orphanages as the state had no remand home.

She added that the children were in the orphanage awaiting their sitting in the family courts, explaining that they could be handed over to their families from where they continued attending the court sittings.

“Even when this offence is grave, like murder or rape, detention in our facility is usually the last resort and this is when no family member comes for the child.

“Detention in our facility can also be for the child’s protection because if a child has committed a serious crime like murder, releasing that child to the society may be risky.

“The child may be killed; so, we keep him or her in our office,” Modor said.

On her par, Mrs Margaret Ene-Ita, Commissioner for Social Welfare in the state, claimed that the state runs a motherless-babies-home and remand home in Uwanse in Calabar.

She, however, declined to comment on the modalities of rehabilitating the child offenders and on any follow-up made by officials of the state government to the police.

Also in Rivers, some residents called for the urgent up grade of the Port Harcourt Remand Home due to its deplorable condition.

According to Mr Adija Allwel, a Public Servant, the home established decades ago, under the control of the State Ministry of Youth Development, had served as the only remand facility for juveniles either awaiting trails or sentencing.

She said that the facility had been overcrowded, poorly equipped and struggled with inadequate staff and difficult living conditions for the children.

“The Ministry’s core mandate include providing rehabilitation like skills training and education, counselling and psychological support to help enhance behavioural change.

“Basic needs like food, health and shelter as well as integration and monitoring of freed inmates also formed part of the home’s responsibility.

“Sadly, these are yet to be achieved as the facility struggles with infrastructural inadequacies,’’ Allwel said.

Mr Ikpanta Samuel, a Port Harcourt-based Lawyer, said that the state government was trying but efforts should be improved, especially, in the area of skills training for inmates and facility upgrade and expansion.

He noted that the Issue of overcrowding was expected, considering increasing crime rates amongst juveniles, a situation he also attributed to internet exposures, peer group and dwindling disciplinary culture in schools and the society.

Mrs Boma George, a rights activist, said that the state remand home was expected to collaborate with the Nigeria Correctional Service through a coordinated juvenile rehabilitation and counseling to prevent freed inmates from returning to crime.

The collaboration, according to her, comes in the form of information sharing and managing inmates awaiting trial or transfer.

“It includes aligning facility management with Nigeria’s juvenile justice reforms and standards; issues of overcrowding and welfare are also expected to be addressed through stakeholders cooperation,’’ she said.

George, however, lamented poor synergy and lack of proper training as some of the challenges limiting the effectiveness of the partnership thereby, affecting service delivery at the home.

In Akwa Ibom, Mr Richard Metong, the Assistant Superintendent of Corrections in Akwa Ibom said that there was no remand homes in the state but had borstal institutions in Correctional Service.

According to him, borstal institutions are facilities for minor offenders, just like correctional centre but not a full-fledged correctional centre.

Metong said that the children were trained on skills and also given any form of education that would enhance their social integration.

“Borstal is an open camp or training centre for minor offenders who are remanded or sentence to custodian centre; the full reformation and rehabilitation centre, we have is equally extended to them.

“In fact, they also engage in agricultural activities, they equally have access to educational facilities from Primary to Secondary School and even up to the National Open University of Nigeria,” he stated.

Metong, also the Public Relation Officer of Nigerian Correctional Service in Akwa Ibom, however, said that he did not know the number of children who were trained in skills and academics at university levels.

He said that this was because he did not have access to such specific data and added that NCS always followed up the children after release from institutions.

He said that there was a strong collaboration between the centre and the parents of the children due to their age.

“Since they are under aged, they are not completely isolated from the centre; parents usually collaborates with the centre to see their training and ‘up and doing’ in the centre.’’

Metong stated that the Correctional Service had been making deliberate efforts to upgrade all the facilities across the country.

He said that the service had started conversation with the Akwa Ibom government through the Ministry of Interior for the upgrade which might be extended to borstal institutions in the state.

He, however, said that due to the absence of a remand home in the state, the child offenders were being sent to orphanages to await trials and attend their court proceedings.

NAN reports that the essence of remand home is, among others, to provide a safe and supervised environment for juveniles before their case is resolved.

It also provides the children and adolescents with supportive environment for rehabilitation, reformation and resocialisation rather than punishment. (NAN)