Law & JusticeNews300 Awaiting Trial, Inmates Get Legal Advice from Lagos Agencies

The Lagos State Directorate for Citizens Rights together with the Office of the Public Defender (OPD) and the Community Service Unit has concluded visits to three correctional centres in Lagos as part of executing its mandate of ensuring that inmates awaiting trial get legal representation.

The team visited the Badagry, Kirikiri and Ikoyi Correctional Centres and counseled 300 male and female inmates. Speaking at the correctional centre in Badagry on Thursday, Oluwatoyin Odusanya, the Director of Directorate for Citizens’ Rights, said the team had come to provide Awaiting Trial Inmates free legal counselling and representation.

“The Lagos State government is concerned about high number of Awaiting Trial Inmates in prisons across the State, especially those who have been incarcerated for a long time due to their inability to afford payment for legal representation during court appearances.

“In this regard, Governor Babjide Sanwo-Olu mandated the Directorate for Citizens’ Rights to periodically visit and intercede on behalf of such Lagosians by providing the much-needed relief and legal services at zero-cost to the inmates, irrespective of tribe, gender or religion,” Mrs. Odusanya said.

The WAP news recalls that the team had earlier visited the Ikoyi and Kirikiri correctional centres on June 16 and June 18, respectively.

Nigeria has a persistent problem of over-crowded prisons. In 2019, ten inmates were electrocuted in a cell, 5 died on the spot. The Nigeria Correctional Service spokesperson, according to Prison Insider, said that the Ikoyi Medium Security Custodial Centre, which was built in 1955 for 800 inmates, now has a population of 3,113 with 2,680 awaiting trial. A 2017 study by Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants, showed that 50,427 or 67 per cent of the 74,507 prisoners in Nigeria, were awaiting trial.

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Adeola Oladipupo (Correspondent)

Adeola has been to over seventeen states in Nigeria. In 2016, he wrote and voiced a story about an experience he had in one of the states for the British Broadcasting Corporation World Service Radio. A graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria, where he studied Sociology, Adeola is a published academic researcher. He worked at theDailyPost , a copywriting firm based in the UK. Some of his articles have been published by top news media in Nigeria including ThisDay and Daily Trust Newspapers

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