Mr Maxwell Dele, who had been imprisoned for more than 11 years without trial, has been ordered released by a Lagos State High Court.
The practise of charging suspects with serious crimes in order to have them remanded in prison indefinitely with little or no effort to prosecute the case needed to end, according to Avocats Sans Frontières France (Lawyers Without Borders France), who stated this in a statement on Monday.
In a statement, Angela Uzoma-Iwuchukwu, the Country Director of ASF France in Nigeria, said that data from the Nigeria Correctional Service on the summary of inmate population by convict and persons awaiting trial as of October 4, 2021, revealed that the facilities hold 37% more inmates than they were designed to hold, with pre-trial detainees accounting for over 70% of the prison population.
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According to the report, Nigerians spent nearly four years on average in pre-trial detention.
According to ASF research, many detainees are held for much longer periods of time, such as Dele, who was “arbitrarily detained for over 11 years, reflecting both an overburdened justice system and structural problems between Nigeria’s state and federal justice systems,” as in this case.
According to the organisation, in Dele’s case, officers from the Nigeria Police Force were looking for a man named Mr James Idem who they suspected of being involved in an armed robbery.
Unfortunately, Dele was a shop owner and James’s next-door neighbour in Lagos’ Ikorodu market.
“During the search for Mr James, police officers asked Dele to provide information about Mr James’ whereabouts, and when Dele couldn’t, he was arrested for armed robbery.”
Dele was arrested and taken to the Sagamu Road Police Station before being transferred to SARS Ikeja in Lagos, where he was hanged and tortured.
“Dele was also compelled to sign a pre-written statement on October 16, 2011, the same day he was charged with armed robbery at Magistrate Court 17, Ikeja, Lagos.” Dele remained in the Kirikiri Medium Security Custodial Centre in Lagos for the next 11 years, never appearing in court.
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“On behalf of the detainee, ASF France filed an application with the Lagos State High Court, requesting his unconditional or conditional release, citing instances of torture, violations of his fundamental human rights, rights to personal liberty, and freedom of movement, as stipulated in sections 35 and 41 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended.” The application was approved by the Lagos State High Court, according to the statement.
The country director of the ASF expressed regret for losing 11 years of one’s life to a “systemic irregularity,” adding that nothing could compensate for the loss.
