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PAPER NO. JULYCON/2014/058

Abuse of Rights, Corruption, Poor Access to Justice and Prisons Congestion: The Banes of Nigerian Justice System Mohammed Isah Shehu General Studies Department, Federal Polytechnic Bauchi- Nigeria

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Murtala Ahmed Public Administration Department, Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi-Nigeria +234803815394/+2348026794157

Being A Paper Presented at the 11th International Conference on Sustainable Development Held at The University Auditorium University of Lome, Lome – Republic of Togo JULY 15 – 16, 2014

ABSTRACT The justice system of a state is the reflection of its extent of civilization, dispensation of justice and development and Nigeria‟s (the Police, Courts and Prison) system is bedeviled by several problems of decay of infrastructures, incompetent personnel, and prisons congestion, corruption, gross abuse of human rights and thus its near collapse. This study examined the Nigerian justice system in relation to the banes of corruption, human rights abuse and prisons congestion. The study used secondary sources to obtain data. It was found that the operators of the Nigerian justice system are collectively and separately responsible for most of the problems, so also the civil society while the government on the other hand has failed in its responsibility by neglecting the system through under-funding, negligence, excessive politics and allowing for incompetence. Recommendations such as complete overhaul of the prisons to reflect changing realities, curbing corruption in the entire justice system, strengthening the constitutional provisions and procedural enforcement of fundamental rights, extensive and adequate civic education, strengthening the works of civil society organizations, speedy operations of the courts, ensuring full independence of the judiciary and creation of conducive atmosphere for legal aid providers among others. Key Words: Justice System, Prison, Congestion, Corruption. Introduction The justice system of every state and society is a reflection of its extent of civilisation, ability to proper dispensation of justice, stability and development. The Nigerian Justice System involving the Police which serve as the main law enforcement agent, the Courts which are an institution for adjudication, arbitration and punishing offenders and Prisons which are basically state centres established for punishment, correction and keeping in custody of those being accused or convicted of various offences. The Nigeria Police Force established by Section (214) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria is the most strategic public law enforcement agent but is today faced by several and complicated problems which have characteristically undermined all its institutional performance; The Courts also established by Section (6 [1-3], 230-294) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as the only state institution with hierarchy, jurisdictions and constitutional powers to try and convict the citizens for various offences against the public and private individuals are also in turbulence because of problems related to abuse of office, corruption and incompetence; and the Prisons which are established as punishment and correction centres with specified capacities of inmates to be accommodated at every particular time, large in number and found in virtually every major town or city, have become centres of infection with diseases, stacking of people, keeping enemies and perceived threats as well as a sophisticated training ground for inmates and detainees to specialize in various criminal activities such as armed robbery, drugs addiction, and other heinous crimes partly as a result of congestion which has become an issue of grave concern to both state and civil societies all over the country in view of the impending consequences associated with it. Background to Nigerian Legal System The present Nigerian legal system originated from the British colonial legacies though it also has Sharia and Customary laws as components. However prior to the colonial contact, conquest and independence, the various areas of what is now Nigeria had their peculiar traditional and or religious legal systems with Courts, Prisons and traditional Police. Thus, the popular Sharia/Islamic legal system (for both civil and criminal) of Sokoto Caliphate for example as maintained by Akinbiyi (2003:1-2 & 2000:332) with an institutionalized and professional judicial system. In fact, there existed for example, a comprehensive justice system in northern Nigeria long before the arrival and conquest of colonial masters as submitted by (Ajayi, (1971:166). That also characterised the Igbo, Yoruba and other pre­colonial societies based on traditions, culture and religions and at various degrees of development. According to Akinbiyi (2001:69): The English Law as a source of Nigerian Law consists of the Common law, doctrines of equity, statutes and subsidiary legislation. The history of reception dates back to 1863 when Ordinance No.3 of that year introduced English law into the colony of Lagos. Usually, where a court is empowered to administer the received law provisions relating to its applications by the court are contained in the enactment which created the court and subsidiary legislation made under the enactment. For instance, the various High Court enactments, the magistrates‟ court laws of the Southern States and the Districts courts legislation of the Northern States contain such provisions. The present Nigerian legal and justice system are thus largely formed along the English common laws model and are characterized by tremendous English laws upon its growth and development (Obilade:2001:4 & Akinbiyi, 2003:1). The system, in part, involves both civil and criminal procedures. Civil procedure is the entire process employed in civil actions to redress a civil wrong involving the methods, styles and practices used in civil actions with court rules and constitutional provisions (Akinbiyi, 2000:2). Criminal proceedings are meant and instituted to punish offenders as civil proceedings are instituted to enable individuals enforce their rights or receive compensation from others and criminal offences and proceedings are usually controlled by states while civil proceedings are taken up by individuals depending on circumstances and peculiarities but sometimes with no clear distinction between the two (Obilade, 2001: 5). Complainant, Accused/Suspects and their Constitutional Rights Human rights are natural, inherent and innate in every individual bone with it and such rights are divine and given to every person as man is created with rights and no individual needs anything to be able to exercise his human and fundamental rights such as those of life, dignity, personal liberty and private life, association, thought and conscience, movement and religion among others (Malemi, 2010:113). In the Nigerian constitution and legal system, the complainant and defendant/accused/suspect have certain fundamental rights as enshrined in the constitution which include among others: rights to obtain the services of a counsel, to be rehabilitated and integrated into the society, fair hearing during trial, call and or cross examine witnesses brought against one, make/file an appeal when a sentence passed is unsatisfactory, early notice on charges against one, and one should not be compelled to excessive punishment that is greater than the offence committed, should not be forced to confess or plead guilty, and should not be arrested until there are sufficient reasons to do so. The rights of an accused person in a trial according to also Malemi, (2010:293) include: pre trial (life, human dignity, personal liberty), trial (fair hearing/natural justice) and post trial (inclusive of all constitutional rights) especially where the person (convict) is appealing a court‟s decision. Going by the constitutional provisions, an arrested person should be informed in writing and orally in the language he/she understands why he/she is being arrested, detained or on what charges (Section 33 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria). According to Section (36 [c]), every one charged with a criminal offence is automatically entitled to be given adequate time, the necessary and required facilities to prepare for defense which can be by oneself or any counsel of choice. But because of the problems which have embedded the Nigerian justice system, instead of this constitutional rights and provisions, it is economic, political status and influence/connection of complainants/suspects that determine the extent to which their rights to bail, fair hearing up to the final judgment are observed. The Police, Courts and Prison are individually and collectively responsible for both flagrant abuses of human rights, corruption and prisons congestion in Nigeria. The dispensation of justice is further complicated by poor communication and roads networks, especially in the rural and agrarian areas, availability of jurisdictional courts, shortage of personnel (especially the police in rural areas), and incompetence of the personnel, corruption and political interference. The Nigerian justice system personnel employ means of intimidation, induced confessions, torture, denial of granting bail, playing the accused against one another, distortion of information and exhibits, deliberately confusing and frustrating witnesses and leaking information to suspects, etc. to manipulate cases to their advantages. In Nigeria, a suspect or an accused person is generally faced by and confronted with legal abuses, societal stigmatization and various manipulations of technicalities of law enforcement processes which often confuse the suspects and create a feeling of psychological defeat, shame and guilt. Although the various constitutions make vivid provisions on the rights of individuals, the extent to which these rights are observed is determined by willingness and commitment of the operators of the justice system to ensure strict compliance. Every generation of people must seek to advance and extend human rights. Any country or society that respects and protects human rights will be freer, safer and more prosperous and therefore, every country and society must incorporate human rights into its legal practices and general lifestyle (Malemi, 2006:120-1). The Nigerian Justice System The Nigerian justice system is currently bedeviled by several problems as delay in police investigations, over use of prison sentences by the courts, non-adherence to the complainant, accused and prisoner rights, prisons congestions, and shortages of funds to the components of the system. The system has over years suffered a refuting neglect leading to near total decay of the system and culminating into several other linked problems and there is a geometric increase in population of the country without a commensurate increase in facilities/infrastructures and services related. Many in addition consider the Nigeria‟s criminal/civil justice system as static in relation to the enormity of its problems. According to Malemi (2010:416), injustice whether at the Police, Courts or Prison come in forms such as abuse of power, exclusion of the members of the armed forces or paramilitary, misuse of discretion, arbitrary arrest and unlawful detention, unfair denial of bail, torture, criminal punishment without fair trial, discrimination, unwarranted dismissal, misappropriation of another‟s property, outright oppression and unfair or inhuman conduct. The Courts The Judiciary Courts (of various types and hierarchies) are established by Sections (6 & 230) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and vested with the powers of dispensation of justice among citizens and governments all over the federation (Malemi, 2010:120-121). The Courts or judges are interpreters of law and arbiters of disputes and have a unique role in protection of human rights and in ideal sense, they are a fundamental cornerstone of democracy and protection of human rights and for the courts and or judges to play unique and expected role in the protection of rights and administration of justice, the judges must be experienced in law and life, objective, disciplined, uncompromising, independent and fearless, constant and impartial unto their retirement or dismissal and then unto death.. In discharging their functions meritoriously, Akinbiyi (2003:133-52) noted that the court or a presiding judge has duties of controlling court proceedings, doing justice between parties, upholding the independence of the judiciary and principles of fair hearing, politeness and courtesy to all and especially the two parties and maintenance of high standards of behavior. Competence and hard work are the therefore, the indispensable tools for effective performance of judicial functions. The judiciary/courts have strategic roles of guarding and enforcing constitutional limitations on power, guardians and dispensers of justice to all as enshrined in laws and resolution of conflicts between individuals and between individuals and state (Nwabueze, 2007:1). The courts and their presiding officers (judges) have challenges of developing and enhancing their judicial knowledge and skills, developing and up keeping personal qualities, being current with happenings and trends especially in the judicature and then observe independence and impartiality. But overtime in Nigeria, the courts have been in decline due to the rots of gross abuse of power (corruption) as stated by Nwabueze (2007:335). Aboki & Ayua (2009) in Peters et al, (2009:32-48) also identified some of the misdoings in Nigerian courts as: manufacturing of facts, asking too many questions during proceedings, open hostility to either of the parties, delay in trial, excessive speed during trial, unnecessary adjournments, refusal to take or grant applications, refusal to allow for or block attempts to reconciliation, refusal to make trial records available, instant execution of judgment to frustrate appeals, conversion of civil to criminal cases/offences, allowing a party to benefit from wrong doing, refusal to grant an accused person on bail, threats of committal for contempt, use of private information to make and or reach court decisions. In other words, corruption has set in, which Akinbiyi (2003:203-4) describes as „„the act of an official or judiciary person who unlawfully and wrongfully uses his station to procure some benefit for himself or for another person contrary to duty and the rights of others‟‟ and where a judicial officer uses his status or position in such a way as to gain an advantage or secure a benefit for others, such a judicial officer is corrupt. Similarly, the processes of compensation, restitution and restoration to victims have been deliberately embedded by corruption in our courts. There is also congestion in virtually all the courts, thereby becoming a carryover to the prisons (congestion) which are attributed to adjournments and slow hearing of charges. According to Ajomo & Okagbue, (1991:195), the courts are also integral part of the problem as they are responsible for excessive and unnecessary adjournments of cases, inadequacy of personnel on one hand and unlawful arrests and stern conditions attached to bail processes. To give a vivid picture of this trend, Akinbiyi, (2003:205) has admitted that corruption has crept into the Nigerian judiciary and an urgent steps need to be taken as it is no longer discussed under closed doors. Nigerian Prisons Congestion in Nigeria According to Sanda, (2007:17-20), the objectives of sending one to prison are the reformation of character, punishment (with a particular penalty) of the offender and containment of the offender (to bring to an end his/her excesses) and imprisonment to deprive the individual of his/her certain rights all in order to ensure correction of the person. The British colonial masters began the establishment of their justice system by building their own model of prisons and courts around 1861 in Lagos which is what the present justice system is bearing with of course structural and functional changes. With increase in population, crime rate and development, however, the number of prisons keeps increasing. Prisons congestion now constitutes the prime problem to the efficiency of the Nigerian prisons as virtually all the country‟s prisons are filled beyond capacity. The prisons are further devastated by shortages of medical, health and sanitary facilities, loss of the essence of their establishment (as correction centre) and instead are now places for the breeding of hard and sophisticated criminals and drugs addicts, and the centres for sale and consumption of hard drugs. According to Sanda (2007:9), congestion of prison rears its ugly head right from the inadequacies of the police in adhering to their statutory duties. Many other scholars attribute prisons congestion to high increase in crime rate, which in turn are caused by the decline in religious beliefs and practices among Nigerians; fragmentation in families with cases of divorces and abandoned children, children given birth to outside marriage leading to delinquency, drug abuse/addiction, prostitution; and excessive materialism which is manifested in many Nigerians‟ desire to get rich without recourse to legal or moral means (Sanda, 2007:4-6). One other main reason for prison congestion is the failure of the courts to effectively discharge their functions, thereby leading detention of more suspects as the only alternative to keep them under the law as applicable to the police who most often have congested cells and also resort to the alternative of remand in prison custody. It is also worthy of note that the largest number of inmates in Nigerian prisons are those awaiting trial or under prosecution, which signifies that only a small proportion of the inmates are those convicted and sentenced for one offence or the other and for various prison terms (Sanda, 2007:10). The Police The Nigeria Police is the only police force established by Section (214) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, which also spells out its major functions as contained in Section (4) of the Police Act as: prevention and detection of crime, apprehension of law offenders, preservation of public laws and orders, enforcement of laws, protection of lives and properties and performance of other military services upon requirement. The police force is key in any justice system as the first assignment (arrests and prosecution of suspects) and enforcement of laws lie with them. The police like the other components of the justice system are bedeviled with multi-faceted problems of incompetence, corruption within and outside it, shortage of logistics and qualified personnel, poor remuneration, excessive politicization of the force and its services, commercialization of recruitment and promotion in the force and gross abuse of fundamental human rights. Nigerian Justice System and Legal Aid Services Legal aid is the provision of free legal services and support to persons who cannot afford to have such on their own due to poverty, illiteracy et cetera. According to Section (46 [4]) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, Nigerian citizens are to have such legal services free of any charge so that their rights could be fully respected and preserved irrespective of whatever status, they may have especially the poor and uneducated ones and de-emphasize materialism in dispensation of justice to the citizens. This as noted by Malemi (2010:415) started in Nigeria with private legal practitioners gesture until the official establishment of the government‟s Legal Aid Council during the Murtala/Obasanjo regime through Decree No. 56, 1976. It was a milestone towards observance and enforcement of rights, but the services rendered by the council are also waning over the time due to negligence, poor or no awareness of the council‟s existence and services, geometric increase in population and Nigerian system dynamics. Summary and Conclusion There can be no peace, stability, progress and development without a sound justice system in any nation or state and ability to dispense justice squarely rests with the justice system. The Nigerian justice system has been marred and individual tactics used in violation of rights such as deliberate and calculated dawdling trial, torture and extortion of suspects, deliberate complication of bailing process and or refusal to grant so, the incessant transfer of suspects in custody from one police station to another and deliberate call for external interference is the main marring factors. Rights of complainants, suspects and detainees are grossly violated despite numerous legal provisions against such. Those awaiting trials are large in number and mostly fall victims of the inadequacies of the Nigerian justice system and remain in the worst conditions in comparison to those convicted and sentenced. Congestion in Nigerian prisons is attributed to the roles of all the components of the entire justice system (the Police, Courts and Prisons) – attitude to work, incompetence and shortage of personnel and poor access to and management of records as well as corruption. But all the respective constitutions of Nigeria (1960, 63, 78, 89, 95 [draft] and 99) have made provisions and guaranteed observance and enforcement of fundamental rights but there are turbulent problems in the observance and enforcement procedures. Something tangible has to be done immediately to save the system from total collapse and also save the image of Nigeria, restore hope in the common man and ensure a just and an orderly society. For every justice deferred, delayed or derailed by anyone through whatever means is justice denied and injustice in whatever form breeds instability. Recommendations The study has made the following recommendations in order for the Nigerian justice system to be dynamic, efficient and relevant to the Nigerian state and society: – There should be immediate and proper rehabilitation of all the country prisons and detention centres to ensure steady provision of basic infrastructures. – Components of the justice system should put hands together and ensure efficiency in the works of the system, especially in the related processes of arrests, detention, bail and prosecution. – Greater and extensive enlightenment should be carried out to specially sensitize citizens on the works of Civil Liberties Organizations, Legal Aid Councils and Human Rights Commissions so as to check the extent of human rights abuses at the police custody, prisons and courts. – There should be greater emphasis on payments and enforcement of fines and compensation to those whose rights are violated and laws offended to check the congestion in the prisons. – The general rehabilitation and reintegration policies and programmes of the government should be improved and popularized more to ensure optimum utilization of such by the prisoners, convicts and ex-convicts. – The stigmatization against prisoners who have served their respective prison terms and other sentences should be stopped so that they could feel socially integrated and part of the wider and normal society. – Independence of the judiciary has to be practically observed and guaranteed and their decisions strictly adhered to especially by governments and the police. – Those that may be wrongly, carelessly or deliberately made victims of crime, detention or torture should be made to enjoy substantial compensation from either the state or those who inflicted such damages on them. – Courts should be henceforth be located within short proximity from the police stations and posts to ensure easy and effective conveyance of the accused. 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