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•How 6 teenagers freed Suleija Prison inmates with school fees, pocket money
From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
Life in prison is somewhat like what obtains in the larger society. The major difference is that a prisoner is not permitted to go beyond his designated environment. He is under serious scrutiny. He attends church or mosque in the yard, goes to school, watches television, plays games and exercises himself and even cracks jokes, including costly ones.
They do their laundry and dry their clothes within the yard. In the night, they retire to their rooms. But unlike the outside world, with reference to Nigeria, they have regular supply of electricity. They also make new friends, discuss politics and do a number of legal duties.
However, it’s unthinkable that some prisoners are there for stealing fowls, goats and wrappers and they could not pay court fines of N5,000 or N10,000. One prison inmate told Daily Sun that he was sentenced to six months behind bars because he fought with his girlfriend and could not raise a judgement fine of N10,000.
Whereas Nasiru was sentenced to six months for not being able to pay a judgement fee of N30,000, Laar said he came there for slapping a “big man’s” daughter.
Daily Sun wanted to know why one could go to prison for not paying a N5,000 fine. Does it mean that the person has no relations or friends that can pay their fines? Or is it because most of the non-governmental organisations do not know about their case?
A highly-ranking Nigerian Correctional Service officer gave insights into the Nigerian judicial system, saying the fault was from the judiciary. He said there should be a way those minor offenders could serve their offences somewhere else, not dumping them with hardened criminals in the correctional centre.
He said: “These questions should be forwarded to the judicial system because there are offenders that are not supposed to come into the yard. The moment you come with your warrant, we don’t have any option than to receive you. That’s what the Constitution says.
“Prison is a body that receives offenders. When the court passes its verdict, we have no choice than to obey. If it was in our power to reject some people, we would gladly say no to them, but we can’t say no because they come with warrants.
“Our own is that, on the day they are to appear in court we’ll take them. If the court says release them, it will not take us one hour to release such people. We release them immediately.”
Meanwhile, these court fines prompted six students, aged between 14 and 17 years, to use part of their school fees and their pocket money to free over six minor offenders in Suleija Correctional Centre, Niger State, recently.
The youngsters were touched by the suffering of the poor convicts who could not pay their court fines. Not only did they use their pocket money, they approached their friends outside their school to talk to their parents concerning their project. They equally cried to their own parents who also assisted them to achieve their aspirations.
One of the parents, Mr. Umaru Abu, whose son was one of those responsible for the release of the inmates, told Daily Sun that the visit to the prison would help shape the lives of the children and serve as a constant reminder that, if they break the law, they will find themselves in such a situation as the inmates found themselves.
“When the Duke of Edinburgh competition came up, they came up with the idea as friends who have the same passion.
“I was moved because they were looking at prisoners who are often neglected in the society. Looking in that direction, it was quite intriguing for me. I also saw an opportunity for the children to learn from the mistakes of those they found in the correctional facility just as the inmates that were released shared their own stories.
“This is the kind of story I would encourage my son and his friends to listen to and be part of so that the errors of the past shall be the compass for the future and ensure that some of those mistakes that are avoidable can be averted just by listening to the convicts. I also wanted them to go to the prison to see what life can be if they go astray.
“The main focus was to go and support them but one of the parents reminded us that there are those that are there for as little as N5,000 fine, which they could not pay. So, we asked the prison authorities if there were people like that and they admitted so. Then we asked them to send us the list. It’s from that list that we paid for their release,” he said.
One of the students, Ifeoluwa Atilola, told Daily Sun that he was moved to get involved in the project because some the inmates got there not only because of the offences they committed but because of their poverty. He advised them not to make similar mistakes that landed them there.
“It’s a way of showing my love to those who are not able to help themselves. Most of them might not be guilty of what they were accused of, especially for those that did not commit the offence intentionally.
“Some of them are minor criminals. They did not really commit the offences that warranted their sentence. I will advise them that whenever they are released they should not make the same mistakes that took them there in the first place.
“I’m happy that they were released today. Given the same opportunity, I will do that again.
“What I learnt from my visit today is that we should be careful in whatever we do in life. I believe that whatever you do today will affect tomorrow. It normally starts at this early stage,” he said.
Another student, Zakari Abu, advised teenagers to listen to their parents so that they will not find themselves in such a situations as the prisoners found themselves.
“I have been watching videos and there are prison videos that show prison experiences. I don’t want to end up like them. With my understanding, I was able to talk to people in my group.
“So, we talked to our parents, that we would like to go to the prison, and they encouraged us. They went further to talk to their friends to raise funds.
“I am so happy to be part of the freedom of those inmates.
“Some of them are not supposed to be there but they found themselves there because of avoidable mistakes. My message is that we should listen to our parents. Their advice will be useful to us someday and always,” he said.
