By Ijendu Iheaka
The Legal
Aid Counsel of Nigeria (LAC), has called on the Federal Government to build a
reformatory in Abia to reduce the risk of young offenders turning hardened
criminals in adult prisons.
The Abia State Coordinator, Legal
Aid Counsel of Nigeria (LAC), Mrs Martha Egwu-Igu made the call in Aba on
Tuesday during an interview with our reporter in Aba.
She noted that during a recent jail
delivery by Justice Theresa Uzokwe, Abia State Chief Judge, some under-aged offenders
were made to remain in adult prisons which had no place for them.
The LAC Coordinator said that
mixing hardened adult criminals with young offenders in prisons would harden
the impressionable young offenders and create criminals out of them later.
“For the nursing mothers and children in the
prison who are below the age of 18 years, they are not supposed to be kept in
the prison with adults.
“It has some social consequences we
may not like in the future so something has to be done and done quickly too.
“My advice to the government is
that government should release funds to build a very good reformatory where the
under-aged will be kept instead of keeping them with the adults criminals in
the prison cell.
“This is necessary because when you
leave them to stay with the adults in the cells, they become more hardened and
it will not augur well with them or society later on.
“So government should rather build
a good reformatory where they can stay, be reformed and acquire skill so that
when they come out, they will become good and useful citizens of Nigeria”, she
said.
The State Coordinator said that LAC
in Abia state has been working hard to ensure that inmates in the prisons in
the state who are not supposed to be incarcerated are released on time.
Egwu-Igu said that LAC moves the
Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) to file information on accused persons and
quicken their trial by filing bail applications for such individuals when DPP
delays prosecution.
She promised to follow the
directive of the Chief Judge, to file bail applications for 47 persons detained
for alleged involvement in the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) clashes last
September.
“The Chief Judge said we should
file their bail application at the High Court. These IPOB people are charged
for different offences.
“We will file their bail
application according to the law. We are not interested in whether they are
fighting for anything or not. What we know is that we owe them a duty by law
defend them”, she said.
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