HOW I OVERCAME: Sani Sale’s Walk To Freedom And Life In Custodial Centres

For four years, Sani Sale was among the awaiting-trial inmates, apparently caught in the slow wheels of the justice system in Nigeria. He was at one of the correctional centres in Bauchi State.

Sale has been in the correctional centre since 5th January, 2022, for alleged rape.

Inside custodial centres in Bauchi, Misau, Azare and Jama’are, daily life follows a rigid routine—early morning headcounts, shared meals, crowded cells and endless hours of reflection. For awaiting trial inmates, the burden is heavier. Unlike convicted inmates, their fate hangs in limbo, with court dates postponed, missing case files and limited legal access prolonging their stay behind bars.

Sani Sale’s story mirrors that of many inmates who entered the system hopeful of quick trials but instead found themselves adjusting to a life of uncertainty. Days turned into months, and months into years. Within the correctional walls, he learnt patience, resilience and the value of hope, clinging to the belief that one day, justice would remember him.

The day actually came during the recent cases review exercise led by Bauchi State chief judge, Justice Rabi Talatu Umar, who headed the Committee on Administration of Justice to review the plight of long-standing awaiting-trial inmates, particularly the sick, mentally challenged and those with untraceable case files.

He was among the 14 inmates approved for release at the Bauchi Custodial Centre/

For him, the walk to freedom symbolised not just release from confinement but a reunion with life beyond prison walls—family, society and a second chance.

During the exercise across the Misau, Azare, Jama’are and Bauchi custodial centres, 14 awaiting-trial inmates who had spent between three and five years in detention were released. Justice Umar emphasised the need for speedy justice and frowned at the poor attendance of judges and magistrates at the review sessions, warning that absenteeism would no longer be tolerated.

Magistrate Safiya Musa, addressing the freed inmates, urged them to see their release as an act of Allah’s mercy, especially in the holy month of Ramadan, and to embrace repentance and personal reform.

Responding to the magnanimity extended to them by the committee, Sale, who said he had repented of his crime of rape, said on behalf of his colleagues, “We are very grateful to God and the committee for its magnanimity to let us go free.”