NHRC laments incarceration of minors for offences committed by relations.

The National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, yesterday, lamented the incarceration of some Nigerians in Enugu Prisons for upwards of between 10 and 15 years without trial for offences committed by their relations.



The Executive Secretary of the commission, Prof. Bem Angwe made this known when he led members of the commission on a visit to the prisons to ascertain its condition and level of compliance with basic human rights.

Angwe spoke as the Enugu State governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi called for the relocation of the facility from the heart of the town to a safer environment.

However, although it was not possible to ascertain the number of the prisoners in the 91-year-old prisons, Angwe painted a grim picture of the situation, pointing out that there were inmates who were arrested for the offences committed by their relatives, even as others died in detention without autopsy being conducted on them to ascertain the cause of their deaths.

He pleaded with the governor to help ease the problem of decongestion by building additional blocks in the prison’s premises and thanked him for respecting the rights of citizens in the state.

However, Ugwuanyi, asked the Federal Government to consider relocating the prisons from its present location at the city centre to a safer part of the town urgently.

Ugwuanyi and Angwe were accompanied to the prisons by the Senator representing Enugu North Senatorial District, Senator Chuka Utazi and other members of the commission.

The governor noted that at the time the prison was built in 1915, the present location was then regarded as the outskirts of the city, but had now become the city centre as a result of development and urbanization, thus making it unsafe for both the public and the prison officials.

According to him, the visit was timely in view of the recent spate of jailbreaks across the country, noting that it would “help provide insights into the immediate and remote causes of these incidents and also provide answers as to how such occurrences can be prevented in future.”

Ugwanyi also stressed that it was expedient to decongest the prison given that it had gone far beyond its capacity, and lauded the officials of the Human Rights Commission on their goal to secure justice for inmates who have been on awaiting trial list longer than their offence would have attracted.

Earlier in his remarks, Prof. Angwe had praised the governor’s commendable inclinations towards visiting the prisons, pointing out that, “Some governors spend eight years without making a single visit to prison; but you have visited more than once.”