The sundry abuses of our country’s criminal justice system need to be confronted by all stakeholders. Unfortunately, governments at the federal and state levels are the chief culprits because of their lackadaisical attitudes to the responsibilities of the state in the process. Matters are not helped by some officials in the criminal justice system who collude with criminals to ridicule the system. These include investigators, prosecutors and custodians of accused persons and convicts.
Recently, rights activist, Femi Falana, SAN, raised an incredulous alarm that 197 persons convicted for drug trafficking offences, are not serving their prison terms. But, as unbelievable as the report seemed, the allegation was substantiated by a committee set up by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, headed by Justice Gilbert Obayan, in 2006. According to the committee, ‘out of 143 drug convicts for the year 2006, 96 of them were never brought to prison. Similarly, another 101 drug convicts for the year 2005 were never brought to the prison, bringing the total convict evading jail to 197 within this period’.
The learned Senior Advocate has asked the NDLEA to supply him information on the allegation, relying on the Freedom of Information Act, to make the demand. He threatened to bring civil and criminal proceedings against the NDLEA chairman and his agency, if after seven days the information is not given to him. We join the activist to ask the NDLEA, where are the convicts? If indeed the convicts have been unlawfully released from prison, there is the urgent need to bring the gang responsible for this scandalous conduct across the agencies to immediate justice.
It is disheartening that the Federal Ministry of Justice will stand idly by, while this kind of treacherous impunity against our national interest is allowed to fester. We demand the immediate implementation of the findings of the Justice Gilbert Obayan’s (rtd) committee. Any further delay must be interpreted as a clear connivance of the Ministry of Justice with the criminals who use their positions to undermine our criminal justice system, to the nation’s detriment. We urge the various agencies to put in place safeguards to forestall this type of embarrassment. Indeed, any of the convicts re-apprehended should be subjected to a fresh trial for jailbreak, and the officials concerned treated as accomplices to the crime.
The disease plaguing the NDLEA is also the lot of other agencies in our criminal justice system. It is commonly believed that many of the high profile detainees and convicts usually spend their detention in the comfort of their homes. There is a more bizarre allegation that those convicted to die are substituted by sundry criminals, who are killed in their place. Another common strategy used to help convicts and detainees avoid confinement in prisons and detention camps is to pretend that they are ill, and are receiving medical attention, when actually they are not. Many of the heads of the agencies, while hosting the high profile detainees shamelessly turn to their drivers and aides, instead of treating them as persons in custody.
We urge other activists and the civil society to join in the crusade to sanitise our criminal justice system, in the country’s interest. A system that does not genuinely punish infractions of its law is an open invitation to chaos and a national embarrassment.
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