CSOs Decry High Number Of Awaiting Trial Inmates

Non-governmental and civil society organisations with focus on justice sector-reforms have decried the preponderance of awaiting trial inmates in Nigeria’s correctional centres.

At a meeting yesterday in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, the organisations noted that about 70 percent of inmates are those awaiting trial and who may never be liable for any jail term.

The meeting of the CSOs was hosted by the Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC) which said in an explanatory note to the meeting that the justice sector-reform meeting was part of the outcomes from the Reforming Pretrial Detention in Nigeria Phase II Project supported by the US Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.

A statement signed by the head of Communications and Knowledge Management of the PPDC, Munachi Okoro, described the rise in pre-trial inmates as alarming, noting that as at December 2023, more than 53,000 inmates were awaiting trial across 253 correctional centres.

“The growing number of pre-trial detainees, many held for years without trial under dire conditions, poses significant human rights concerns, overwhelming the justice system and correctional facilities,” the PPDC said.

It said the Yola meeting brought together key organisations from the justice sector to discuss crucial topics towards providing free legal services, among other things, to facilitate trials and decongest correctional centres.

Representatives of NGOs and CSOs at the meeting spoke of what their organisations were doing and would be doing to make way for drastic reduction in the number of awaiting trial inmates in facilities around them.