Judiciary
NO fewer than 5,143 awaiting-trial inmates remanded in the five prisons in Lagos State have no lawyer to represent them in court, the Lagos Criminal Information System has revealed.
It further revealed that though the five prisons have a total enrolled capacity of 4,087 inmates, they are actually holding 8,434 inmates, 55 per cent of whom are awaiting trial, as of May 15, 2018.
Speaking on Tuesday in Alausa during the presentation of the LCIS inaugural report, the Lagos State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Adeniji Kazeem, described the revelation by the new LCIS as astonishing.
Kazeem, in his opening remarks, noted that the LCIS was created as a solution to the lack of comprehensive data for tracking suspects, which was hitherto a major challenge to proper justice administration in Lagos.
Present during the LCIS public presentation were Justice Doris Okuwobi, who represented the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Opeyemi Oke; the Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja branch, Mr Dele Oloke, and the Controller of Prisons, Lagos Command, Mr Tunde Ladipo.
Also present were the Lagos State Solicitor-General, Mrs Funlola Odunlami; and the state’s Director of Public Prosecutions, Ms Titilayo Shitta-Bey.
Decrying the state of the prisons as revealed by the LCIS, the attorney general lamented that, “Most outrageous is the disparity in the maximum capacity of prisons in Lagos vis-a-vis the actual number of inmates presently in those prisons.”
He also described as shameful the revelation by the LCIS that 71 juveniles were currently being held in adult prisons.
According to the LCIS, the prisons in Lagos are mostly populated by persons between the ages of 30 and 49, who account for 50.2 per cent of the total number of inmates.
With a total of 2,766, people between the ages of 18 and 29 come next, representing 42.5 per cent, while there were only six persons between the ages of 80 and 89 in the prisons.
The LCIS also identified conspiracy and robbery as the most rampant criminal case in Lagos State, while breach of peace, armed robbery, rape, defilement, murder, assault and cultism follow in that order.
It further identified Ikorodu as the part of the city with the highest rate of crime.
According to the report, out of the total number of inmates in the prisons, 247 are standing trial for crimes allegedly committed in Ikorodu, while 197 inmates are answering charges based on crimes committed in Ojo.
Following closely were Agege, with 169 inmates; Ikeja,163 inmates; Lekki, 135 inmates; Apapa, 134 inmates; Mushin, 113 inmates; Badagry, 97 inmates and Oshodi, with 96 inmates. – Punch
– Jul. 26, 2018 @ 8:59 GMT |
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