August 25
GREECE:
August 25, 1972: The Last Execution in Greece Before Abolition of Death Penalty
On this day in 1972, 27-year-old Cretan electrician Vassilis Lymberis was
executed by a firing squad for murdering his mother-in-law, his wife, and his 2
children by burning down the family house in January of that year.
It was August 25, 1972, with Greece still under military rule, when the last
execution in the country took place before the abolition of the death penalty.
Lymberis, who had three accomplices in his crime, claimed he didn’t know that
his children were in the house at the time he set fire to it. He said he only
wanted to hurt his mother-in-law because she was driving him insane with her
behavior.
Lymberis’ heinous crime
Vassilis Lymberis and Vassiliki Markou were married in December 1967 and set up
their home together in Metamorphosi, a northern suburb of Athens. He was 22
years of age and she was only 19.
After a time, the couple began to have arguments and were known to not be
getting along. Lymberis claimed he asked his wife for a divorce before they had
children, but that she had refused because she loved him too much.
The couple had their first child, Panagiota, in June of 1969, but that was not
enough to bring the two closer. The fighting, which took place mostly between
Lymberis and his mother in law, escalated when Vassiliki was pregnant with
their 2nd child.
2 years after Panagiota, little Giorgos was born into the world, but the
relationship between the couple was at its lowest ebb at that time.
Lymberis left his home and rented an apartment in the center of Athens.
Relatives and friends of the family accused him of living a life of depravity,
drinking and womanizing and squandering away the family’s money.
During Christmas of 1971, Lymberis met three young men, 20-year-old Athanasios
Stamatis, 25-year-old Theodoros Kapretsos and 17-year-old Pavlos Angelopoulos,
who lived in the same apartment building as himself.
One night, when Lymberis was drunk, he told his new friends of his plan to kill
his mother-in-law and asked for their help, promising that they would not get
caught for the crime.
He promised money and a new car to Angelopoulos, the youngster in the group.
One night Lymberis and Angelopoulos bought gasoline and went to the house in
Metamorphosi but they discovered that the children were in the house and that
there was not enough gasoline to set fire to the entire building, so they left.
But on the night of January 5, 1972, Lymberis, Angelopoulos and Kapretsos
bought three large containers of gasoline and went to the family home.
Kapretsos would act as the lookout while Lymberis and Angelopoulos went into
the house to set fire to it.
Angelopoulos and Lymberis had one can of gasoline each, leaving the third at
the door. The 18-year-old went into the room where Lymberis’ mother-in-law and
the infant boy were sleeping. Lymberis then entered the bedroom where his wife
and daughter were sleeping.
Angelopoulos poured the gasoline into the room first, and Lymberis followed
suit in his wife Vassiliki’s bedroom. They lit matches and set the place
ablaze, amidst the screams of the two women and the children.
Vassiliki jumped out of bed and attempted to call the police and the fire
service. Lymberis then grabbed her by the hair and threw her into the flames,
then stomped on her chest so she wouldn’t get up while he screamed “Now you’re
gonna pay!”
Upon hearing the screams of the women and children, Angelopoulos suddenly
experienced pangs of conscience, and he then took the third gasoline container
and tried to pour the contents on Lymberis, who hid behind a door and avoided
getting burned.
Then he locked the burning house and fled. Angelopoulos later claimed he helped
commit the crime because Lymberis had lied to them about the children being at
home.
Lymberis, Angelopoulos and Kapretsos then returned to Vathi Square where they
lived. Lymberis, who had several burns on his face and body, threatened the
others to keep their mouths shut about the deadly arson attack.
Stamatis, who had played had no part in the actual crime, was asked to burn the
clothes used by Lymberis and Angelopoulos so they could not be used as evidence
in case they were arrested.
Arrest and trial
Vassiliki Markou’s brother in law, Antonis Stroggyloudis, just happened to pass
by the house after the attack and saw smoke pouring out the windows. He rushed
in and found his mother-in-law and the two children already dead, but Markou,
despite suffering severe burns, was still alive.
Stroggyloudis called the fire service and police. Markou was taken to the
hospital, where she died that same day. But before she passed, she was able to
tell a relative that the man who set the house on fire was her husband.
Socrates Kapsaskis, the chief of Greece’s forensic department at the time,
declared after performing the autopsies on the victims “This is the most
horrendous crime ever committed in Greece. I have not seen a more horrific
crime in my thirty years as a forensic doctor.”
When police took Lymberis to the station after hearing the testimony of his
wife’s relative, he still believed that his wife was already dead when he had
left the house.
The burns on his face and body, combined with her relative’s testimony, were
enough to invalidate his feeble alibi, so he then confessed to the horrific
crime. His 2 accomplices confessed as well.
Lymberis’ trial commenced on May 5, 1972, with the defendant using as an excuse
that the cause of all the problems in his marriage was his mother-in-law. He
further claimed that he believed if his home were burned down, his wife and
children would leave and come to stay with him.
He flatly denied that he knew Vassiliki and the children were at home that
night.
The remaining defendants admitted guilt in the case and apologized to the
victim’s family. The court issued its ruling at noon on Sunday, May 7, 1972.
Lymberis and Angelopoulos would receive four separate death sentences,
Kapretsos would be sentenced to life in prison, and Stamatis would get 3 years
in prison.
The assembled friends and family of the victims in the courtroom applauded
wildly upon the reading of the sentences.
Prison and execution
Lymberis was initially transferred to the Aegina Prisons, where he was held in
a special cell in fear that the other prisoners would abuse or kill him for his
horrendous crimes. He was then taken to the New Alikarnassos Prison in
Heraklion, Crete.
His subsequent request for pardon was rejected.
At 5:50 AM on Friday, August 25, 1972, Lymberis was led to the mountainous area
of Dyo Aorakia, to the shooting range used by the Infantry Regiment Officers
School. He was accompanied by two priests, who gave him his last Holy
Communion.
Prosecutor Antonis Nikolopoulos asked Lymberis if he had a last statement to
make, but the prisoner, continuing to keep his head bent down, said that he did
not.
Lymberis was then executed by a 12-member firing squad. Only 6 of the 12 rifles
had real bullets – the others had blanks – so that the soldiers would not have
the burden on their consciences that it was their bullet that had killed a man.
His body was then buried in Nea Alikarnassos.
Angelopoulos was not executed, since he had not yet become e18 years of age.
His execution was then suspended, and in 1975 his death sentence was commuted
to life imprisonment. He was granted pardon and released after 20 years in
prison in the early 1990s.
Lymberis was the last person to be executed for any crime in Greece. Capital
punishment was abolished for crimes — other than high treason during wartime —
in Article 7 of the Greek Constitution, which was ratified in 1975.
In 1997, Greece ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming for the international abolition
of the death penalty. Protocol Number Six of the European Convention on Human
Rights (ECHR), providing for the abolition of the death penalty in peacetime,
was passed in 1998.
Greece abolished the death penalty for all crimes, even for treason during
wartime, in 2004. In 2005, Greece ratified Protocol Number 13 of the ECHR,
concerning the abolition of the death penalty under any and all circumstances.
(source: greekreporter.com)
RUSSIA:
Kaluga governor proposes to execute man who killed war veteran
After the murder of a 92-year-old veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Kaluga
Region Governor Anatoly Artamonov complained about the absence of capital
punishment in Russia.
“If it wasn’t for the moratorium on death penalty, we could simply execute him,
and that’s it. If this is true, then, by and large, he has no moral right to
live on earth,” Artamonov said as cited by Podyem via Telegram.
According to the investigation, World War II veteran Boris Ignatyev was killed
by a drug addict from Maloyaroslavets. The 34-year-old man hit the veteran at
least 10 times. He committed the murder for the sake of money.
Boris Ignatyev was born in 1926 and drafted into the army in January 1944. He
took part in hostilities in Europe until January 1945.
(source: crimerussia.com)
SAUDI ARABIA:
Trending: 23 Nigerians waiting for Saudi hangmen
Trending right now in Nigeria is the list of 23 Nigerians said to be on death
row in Saudi Arabia over drug-related offences. They were arrested between 2016
and 2017 at King Abdul-Aziz International Airport, Jeddah, and Prince Muhammad
Bin Abdu-Aziz International Airport, Madinah.
The list was first published in April after the execution of Nigerian widow,
Kudirat Afolabi, who had brought into Saudi Arabia, a prohibited drug.
The list, comprising mainly Yoruba and some few Hausa/Fulani people, all
muslims, was exhumed on Sunday by some Twitterati to show that crime is not
limited to a particular ethnic group in Nigeria.
The list #23Nigerians was the number one trending topic on Nigerian Twitter,
supplanting #Igboyahooboys, which emerged after the FBI released on Thursday
the list of almost 80 Nigerians, indicted for wire fraud, romance scams and
Business email compromise crimes. Later another hashtag, #yorubadrugdealers
emerged.
Commenters on Sunday bemoaned how the Nigerians, from the Yoruba and Igbo
ethnic groups, are destroying the national reputation, internationally.
Some commenters even wondered why Nigerians would risk taking drugs to Saudi
Arabia, when they knew the consequences, if caught.
The Saudi Arabian Government said back in April that the 23 suspects concealed
the narcotic substance in their rectum, an act the Saudi Government says
contravenes its narcotic and psychotropic substances rules.
The offence is punishable by death. Back in April then, Saheed Sobade, another
Nigerian was also awaiting execution.
“It is well-known for all those interested in travelling to the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia that the penalty for drug trafficking is the death sentence and
the said sentence is applied on all persons convicted without any exceptions,
as long as the evidence is established against them, and this is conveyed to
every person prior to his trip to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the Royal
Embassy of Saudi Arabia said in April, after Nigerians criticised the killing
of Afolabi.
The Saudis have not said whether the trial of the 23 suspects have been
concluded and whether they will all face the death penalty. Their last word on
the matter was published in April.
(source: pmnewsnigeria,com)
IRAN----execution
Man Hanged in Sari City
A prisoner was hanged for murder charges at a prison in the Iranian northern
city of Sari Wednesday.
According to HRANA, on the morning of Wednesday, August 21, a man was hanged at
a prison in the Iranian northern city of Sari, Mazandaran province. The man is
identified as Abolhassan Ghorbani, 38. Abolhassan killed a man during a fight
f4 years ago.
“Plaintiffs asked for money to forgive but the prisoner’s family were not rich
enough to pay the blood money,” a well-informed source said.
According to the Iranian Islamic Penal Code (IPC) murder is punishable by qisas
which means “retribution in kind” or retaliation. In qisas cases, the plaintiff
has the possibility to forgive or demand diya (blood money).
In this way, the State effectively puts the responsibility of the death
sentence for murder on the shoulders of the victim’s family. In many cases, the
victim's family are encouraged to put the rope is around the prisoner's neck
and even carry out the actual execution by pulling off the chair the prisoner
is standing on.
(source: Iran Humnan Rights)
PHILIPPINES:
‘They will die in prison sooner or later:’ Lacson opposes death penalty for
terrorists, drug lords, plunderers
Senator Panfilo Lacson is opposed to the revival of death penalty for persons
convicted of heinous crimes since they will eventually die in prison.
Lacson instead pushed for life imprisonment for the convicted terrorists, drug
lords, and plunderers without parole or pardon.
“Absolute life imprisonment i.e. without parole or pardon for convicted
terrorists, drug lords, plunderers and heinous crime offenders is reason enough
not to push for the restoration of the death penalty anymore. They are sure to
die in prison sooner or later,” he tweeted last August 24.
Lacson made the comment following the controversy sparked by the reported
possible release of convicted rapist and killer Antonio Sanchez for alleged
good behavior.
(source: politics.com.ph)
BANGLADESH:
Military tribunal judges used to read death penalties pre-signed by Zia:
Researcher
General Zia, founder of the BNP, became the army chief after the assassination
of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on Aug 15 in 1975 and eventually the first
military ruler of Bangladesh.
Pintu, an editor of TV channel DBC News, said there had been “mass killings” in
the armed forces during Zia’s time to purge the freedom fighters in the force.
He suggested forming a commission to look into the details of those dark days,
a proposal which was supported by former state minister Tarana Halim and Nuzhat
Choudhury, daughter of martyred intellectual Abdul Alim Chaudhury.
“People have the right to know the dark days in the armed forces,” Pintu said.
They were speaking at a special discussion on the “locked chapter of history:
1975-1996” organised by the Centre for Research and Information (CRI) at the
Bangabandhu Memorial Trust Auditorium in Dhaka on Saturday.
Dhaka Tribune Editor Zafar Sobhan and online activist Maruf Rosul also spoke at
the event, moderated by Prime Minister’s Special Assistant Shah Ali Farhad.
Youths born after the 1975 massacre of Bangabandhu and his family, who grew up
reading distorted or no accounts of the years following the carnage, were in
the attendance.
Pintu, the author of a book published in 1997 on these years, said he learnt
how hastily the executions were carried out from the judges of the military
tribunals.
“The judges said Zia signed the order. They just read that out.”
“I still get calls from the family members of those killed during that time,”
he said, giving a recent example when a 42-year old man came to his office
after hearing the speech of Hasanul Haq Inu in the parliament where the MP said
Pintu knew the facts related to those “murders”.
“He cried for 10/12 minutes before saying anything. And then said, ‘I came to
you to know the date of my father’s death’. After 42 years, searching all my
research files, I told him it was Nov 27 and his father was hanged in Cumilla
Central Jail. He burst into tears,” Pintu said. “This is just one example.”
“You cannot imagine those days,” he told the youths.
“Every night there was curfew in the town and hanging was going on in the
central jail between 12am and 4am. There was a long list and they were racing
against time.
“It took 30 minutes to hang one person. In one night, they could hang eight
people. And for that many were sent to Cumilla, Bogra and Rajshahi jails. They
even cut tendons to expedite deaths. I have the proof, it’s not merely a
research,” he said.
“I talked with the executioner of the Cumilla jail….he said he hanged 92. Of
the total 480 hangings in Bangladesh, Ziaur Rahman hanged 280 people and all of
them were members of the armed forces.”
Things were changing so fast then that the authorities did not even have the
time to check whether the person they were hanging was actually sentenced to
death, Pintu said, suggesting that the government form a commission to know the
details of those “mass killings” in the armed forces.
A person was hanged even after he was sentenced to life in prison. “’I am not
given death penalty…,’ he cried, but they didn’t have time to check that,”
Pintu said.
One of the tribunals was set up on Oct 8, but the judgment it gave was dated
Oct 7 and the verdict was executed on Oct 9, according to Pintu. “The gazette
on constituting the tribunal was issued on Oct 14.”
“Each and every officer told me, General Zia signed the death sentences at the
dining table with fork in his one hand. He even signed at airport on his way
abroad,” he said.
“He did that to do the hangings quickly. It was a regular affair.”
Pintu said BNP leader General Mir Shawkat Ali had told him they had killed
1,130 personnel, over 90 % of whom were freedom fighters, in the military.
“His (Zia’s) mission was to eliminate freedom fighter soldiers. He promoted
non-freedom fighter officers.”
Nuzhat Choudhury also called upon the government to form a commission to know
the details of the dark chapter.
She said Zia wanted to eliminate those who supported 1971 Liberation War. “The
conspiracy is still going on. In each and every profession, they did that
systematically. We have to find out whether he had worked as an agent of the
Pakistani forces.”
She said the commission can be tasked with looking into the facts of the
killings of intellectuals in 1971, the Aug 15 massacre in 1975, and the
post-1975 killings in the armed forces.
“It is the golden opportunity for this now. We need to have that commission to
complete the history,” she said.
Tarana Halim said Zia had cancelled the collaborators’ act and rehabilitated
war criminals. “He cancelled 12,000 pending trials and freed 475 convicted
criminals.
He restored the citizenship of war criminal Ghulam Azam and brought him back
from Pakistan, Tarana said.
“Everything was part of a well-planned conspiracy to keep a generation in the
dark and let them grow with misinformation and distorted history, keeping them
away from the true history of Bangladesh.”
Zafar Sobhan encouraged youths to read the true history of Bangladesh and said:
“History is not a matter of opinion. It’s a matter of fact.”
(source: bdnews24.com)
NIGERIA:
Prisons of hell…Decay, overcrowded facilities threaten new correctional service
take-off ¦ Inmates crammed like sardines ¦ Nigerians decry current state of
prisons ¦ Say name change only scratching the surface, cosmetics
When on Monday, August 19, members of Royal House of Faith Ministries, Lekki,
visited the Ikoyi Correctional Centre, Lagos, for a Christian fellowship
session with inmates of the facility, who had become born-again while serving
their sentences, the delegation from the Pentecostal church suffered deep shock
upon seeing the reality of the daily life of the inmates.
It took a strong willpower for the women among them to restrain themselves from
shedding tears openly. The experience brought home to the delegation and every
other human being, the need to give thanks for every second a person breathes
the air of freedom. The simple reason being that the air a person breathes in
freedom is worth more than gold.
Across the country, facilities of the now Nigeria Correctional Service (until
recently known as the Nigeria Prison Service, NPS) are so decrepit, derelict,
over-populated and in disrepair, all crying to be discarded and rebuilt to make
them fit for human occupation, in order to meet the new focus of the Federal
Government as set through the enactment of the new law and name change of NPS.
In this special report, Sunday Sun gives a broad picture of the situation at
the prisons across the country and offers insights on how to make them truly
correctional.
Enugu Maximum Prison, others
Chukwunonso Nomeh, 39, from Oruku in Nkanu East Local Government Area of Enugu
State is a study in courage and hope. While he waited for the hangman’s noose
in the Enugu Maximum Prison, Nomeh made history, last year, as he became the
first prisoner in West Africa to bag a master’s degree. He was also the best
graduating inmate in the country in 2017.
The 2007 graduate of Metallurgical and Material Engineering from the Enugu
State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) was condemned to death by
hanging on January 28, 2016, but he recently was let off the hook by the Court
of Appeal.
In an interview with Sunday Sun before his release, the ex-convict described
the condition of the prison as hell.
“It’s only the grace of God that has kept me because eight of us sleep in a
store that can’t contain an Alsatian dog. I have passed through a lot;
stigmatized and psychologically traumatised, but it’s all about determination.
I believe that I will not die here; the Lord that has kept me this far will
surely deliver me.
“We don’t sleep. Since we are 8, we usually do it 4 by 4; meaning that 1st set
will sleep from 9:00p.m to 1:00a.m; while the s2nd set starts 1:05a.m to
6:00a.m. I normally join the first set so that I can read from 1:00a.m; and as
a condemned inmate, you don’t have time coming outside,” he said.
A colonial relic, the age of the Enugu Maximum Security Prison naturally
depicts the condition of the facility. Built in 1915 by the British with an
initial capacity of 638 to serve Enugu and its environs, the facility presently
locks about 2,452 inmates. Of this number, 236 are condemned convicts, 216 are
serving various prison terms; 38 are on life imprisonment; called lifers while
55 are lunatic inmates.
The rest, amounting to about 80 % of the inmates, it was gathered, are inmates
awaiting trial; hence, the service had introduced various programmes to
meaningfully engage the youthful minds locked up there with skills and
vocational, religious, musical, and educational programmes.
The facility’s special study centre, under the aegis of the National Open
University of Nigeria (NOUN) is one of the best in the country and had produced
the best students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. So far, a
reformed inmate is slated to release a nine-track musical album by October this
year.
There are 2 other prisons in the state; the Nsukka and Oji River medium
security prisons. The Nsukka prison was built in 1926 by the colonial
government to maintain public order within the Nsukka province and its
environs; while that of Oji River was established in 1934 as a prison camp,
where inmates with signs of leprosy were attended.
Also Sunday Sun learnt that the Nsukka Prison received its first ever facelift
in 2017 with the construction of a storey cell block, all in suites. Official
source puts the carrying capacity at 187, but it currently houses 299 inmates.
As for the Oji River Prison, it was gathered that the military administration
of General Ibrahim Babangida in December, 1992, commissioned a new facility
there with modern and humane accommodation for both inmates and staffers. Tunji
Olagunju, the then Internal Affairs Minister performed the inauguration.
With a maximum capacity of 80 beds, the Oji River Prison is counted as one of
the few modern prisons built in recent years in Nigeria. It is presently
locking above its capacity owing to the problem of overcrowding.
Overcrowding and indeed, paucity of facilities are the bane of prisons in Enugu
State. Investigation showed how inmates live like animals in pens, to the
extent that a space meant for 35 inmates presently houses about 150-180 of them
in the Enugu Maximum Prison. Moreover, none of the cells for inmates awaiting
trial holds less than 90 persons.
There is also the problem of quality of food given to the inmates. An
ex-convict described their soup as “useless, even dog can never lick it.”
The issue of toilet is the worst point in the condition of the Enugu Maximum
Prison. A visitor to any of the toilets would turn back in revulsion and hold
back the urine or feaces rather use the facility.
The sanitary condition is unbearable, even the horrible odour that oozes out of
their septic tank might be enough to cause airborne disease within Enugu
metropolis. We gathered that the condemned inmates, for instance, use paint
buckets as toilets inside their cells, which are then emptied and the
containers washed by the inmates in the morning, in a manner they call
“throwing well.”
Experts said that the high number of lunatic inmates there could be a direct
correlation of the dehumanising condition of the facility.
A prison source alleged that about 55 sound men and women remanded by various
courts were so overwhelmed by the conditions obtainable therein; then
psychological problems like depression, self-pity, hallucinations, vain
imaginations and day-dreaming set in and the result was lunacy.
The rot in the system also manifested in the skill acquisition centre where
inmates were expected to be trained in carpentry, welding, tailoring and other
vocations to complete the reformation cycle. The whole place has become
moribund.
The forgoing is one major area that the Custodial Service would have much work
to do because several inmates granted pardon or who completed their prison
terms, always go home alienated from the people and seen as outcasts by the
public.
The case is worsened because they left the prison with no reintegration plan,
no rehabilitation, no skill acquired, and nothing added to their lives. This
has led to the upsurge in crime in the society because some of them would soon
commit other offences and are returned to prison where they could be easily
embraced by other inmates.
A good case in point is Mr Ikechukwu Ikpechukwu, one of the prisoners recently
released by the Presidential Prison Reform Committee that visited the Enugu
Prison. He spent 28 years in prison, but was released into the world a confused
and hopeless man without any skill or aftercare programme.
Similarly, Nigeria’s oldest prisoner, Pa Celestine Egbunuche, who was on death
row for 19 years, recently regained his freedom, but was stranded in Enugu as
there was no aftercare programme for him, by either the Imo State government or
the correctional system. The centenarian is still homeless 2 months after he
was freed from years of incarceration.
Another major challenge at the Enugu Prison is the unavailability of vehicles
to convey inmates to court, so, the warden resorts to collecting money from
them before they could be taken to court. It has been a clear case of “no
money, no going to court,” a convict told our reporter. The implication is that
indigent prisoners rot away in prisons even when courts were ready to discharge
them.
The prison also lacked the facility to take care of young offenders as they are
painfully clamped there and allowed to mingle with hardened adults.
Inmates of the Enugu Prison further lamented about medical care, particularly
complaining about the attitude of Dr Johnson Okoro, in-charge of the sick bay
named OBS.
They described him as a square peg in the round hole, alleging that as a
psychiatric doctor, he was not fit to take care of the bulk of health issues
emanating from the prison.
According to them, the common sicknesses prevalent in the facility include
infectious diseases, malaria, typhoid and diabetes, which are definitely
outside his specialty.
Regardless, stakeholders have listed what could be done to make the system
really correctional in tandem with its new nomenclature.
President, Global Society for Anti-Corruption (GSAC), Frank Ezeona, who
applauded the new policy direction of the government, said that it has
tremendously reduced the stigma hitherto attached to inmates.
According to him, the introduction of the two main faculties (custodial service
and the non-custodial service) is quite innovative.
He explained that the custodial service ranged from custody of the inmates,
taking care of their conditions, conveying them to court in motorized
formations, rehabilitation, reformation, feeding, reintegration, empowering
inmates educationally and through vocational skill training programmes. And the
non-custodial service involves community service, probation, parole,
restorative justice, among others.
Moving forward, he urged President Muhammadu Buhari to take the extra step in
terms of strict monitoring, provision of fund to the institution and posting
personnel and/or officers with proven records of integrity in the sector, as
well as exposing the correctional officers to more international trainings to
especially handle the reintegration of inmates back to society as probation
officers, so as to guarantee safer society as envisaged by the newly assented
Act.
Ezeona added that GSAC will not relent in keeping watch on the Nigerian
Correctional Service officials in a bid to drive home the noble objectives and
intentions of the president to strictly combat corruption in the society.
In the same vein, Convener of Centre Against Brutality and for Safety of
Journalists in Africa (CABSOJA), Ugo Ezekiel, urged the government to hasten
the implementation of the new policy aimed at reforming the defunct Nigerian
Prison Service, to make it actually correctional in nature, instead of the
breeding ground for crime that it is today.
“The truth is that change in name is not enough. We must provide sufficient
infrastructure, decongest our prisons and obey the rights of prisoners in line
with international legislations on rights of prisoners. We must match words
with action, if the intended reform will succeed,” the rights lawyer stated.
Kuje Medium Prison and Suleja Prison
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, has 2 penitentiaries, namely, Kuje
Medium Prison and Suleja Prison. While Kuje Prison was commissioned on August
14, 1989, Suleja Prison is as old as the emirate because it was used as a lock
up facility by the Emir of Zazzau before it was handed over to the colonial
government in 1928.
Although Kuje Prison was built to hold 560 inmates, today it has 786 inmates,
comprising 155 convicted inmates, 631 awaiting trial inmates, 23 condemned
criminals, 15 life imprisonment inmates and 131 inmates held for various
offences.
Like Kuje, the Suleja prison built to hold 250, but currently has 390 inmates,
comprising 147 convicted inmates, 202 awaiting trial, five males and one female
condemned criminals, among others. Dukpa Farm also in the FCT, built for 150
inmates, currently has 65 inmates, which brought the total number of inmates in
the FCT prisons as at August 2019 to 1,241 inmates.
Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Correctional Service, Francis Enobore,
told Sunday Sun of the joy of the service, saying that the change in the focus
of the institution would bring a lot of benefits and sanity into the system.
Enumerating how the new Act would solve the myriad of challenges facing the
service, Enorbore said: “The biggest challenge we have in prison is congestion.
There are different ways the new Act can help in the issue of decongesting the
prison. The first is the non-custodial measures such as probation and community
service, which would play major roles in decongesting the prison.
“What it means is that instead of having people with less infraction like
assault and battery, traffic offenders, street hawkers and the like, tried and
sentenced to imprisonment, which overpopulates the facilities, we will now
adopt alternatives to custodial sentencing like community service. The offender
can be asked to clean gutters, clear public cemetery and work in the public
hospitals or render similar services that would be of interest to the general
public and equally be useful to himself and his family because they would be
coming from their houses to serve the punishment.
“By extension, the Federal Government will be totally relieved from the cost of
feeding them as inmates, providing medical care and other services. More
importantly, those on death row, numbering more than 2,100 across the country,
and who should be held in special prisons meant for them (because they are
usually violent and difficult to control), would then be easier to handle.
“They contribute to increasing prison population because the governors no
longer sign death warrants to execute them, due to the unwritten moratorium on
death penalty. This category of inmates happen to be one of the most difficult
set to control because they will tell you that a man already down needs not
fear a fall again.
“However, instead of keeping them where they are not supposed to be, the new
Act provides that any condemned inmate that has exhausted all appeal avenues
and has spent over 10 years on that status, the Chief Judge has the power to
commute the death penalty to life imprisonment. So, with this arrangement, we
can now transfer any such inmate to a more commodious environment where we can
better monitor them.
“Once they are commuted to life imprisonment, they can be amenable to other
forms of correctional measures. Despite the fact that we are talking about
prison congestion, there are several prison centres spread across the country.
For example, we have about 17 farm centres across the country and none is up to
half of their capacity.
“If we now have more convicts, we can now spread them out to such areas. Gusau
in Zamfara State, for instance, has the capacity to hold up to 1,800. We spread
out the inmates to other locations where we have space.”
Explaining further he said: “The new Act equally provides that once the
governor of a yard, that is the officer in charge of a correctional facility,
observes that the capacity of his facility is almost getting to the brim, he
will, within one week, report to the state Controller of Correctional Service,
who will now inform the state’s Attorney General, the Chief Judge, the Mercy
Committee, the State Justice Committee and any other relevant stakeholder,
alerting them that a particular correctional facility is getting to its
capacity.
“Then within 3 months of that notification, these bodies would expedite
whatever action to be taken to decongest that facility or apply any other
measure immediately. The new Act also provides that an inmate that has passed
through the rudiments of reformation and rehabilitation in the correctional
facility and certified to have imbibed considerable penitence, acquired skill,
vocational and sound educational credentials, would be issued a certificate by
the board, through the recommendation of the Controller General of the Nigeria
Correctional Service.
“The certificate would give the ex-offender a soft landing and opportunity to
compete favourably with any other person in the society thereby removing the
stigma of being an ex-convict. This would qualify the person to vie for any
position, get federal employment with the assumption that he has repented of
his wrongdoing and can be integrated into the society. All these measures will
go a long way in ensuring that our facilities will no longer be congested and
it will help us focus our attention on better management of inmates in our
country. In a nutshell, the Act has a very friendly outlook to crime management
in the country.”
Ekiti Correctional Service
Located in a serene environment along Afao Road, Ado Ekiti, the correctional
facility in Ekiti State has capacity to accommodate 500 inmates, but currently
has over 400 inmates of which over 300 are awaiting trial.
Deputy Comptroller, Federal Prisons, Mr Olusola Babatunde, who is in charge of
the facility, said it has been well managed under him though the Ekiti State
Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Wale Fapounda, expressed hope
that several challenges confronting the correctional centre would be addressed.
He said: “First, I think it is important to appreciate the president for this
affirmation of the importance of an appropriate legal framework for the Nigeria
Prisons. However, it must be recognised that the Act on its own will not
achieve the desired changes. There is a need for additional measures. In my
view, the key criminal justice agencies, including non-governmental penal
reform organizations need to examine key provisions of the Act and identity
areas of collaboration.
“Second intervention must be to adopt a practical approach to the issue of our
large population of awaiting trial prisoners. Achieving this will require a
holistic prison audit with a view to releasing, with or without conditions,
persons who should not be in prisons or can be dealt with by other means. In
essence we need to reduce the more than 40,000 awaiting trial inmates to a
manageable number.
“The Federal Government should also urgently review the salary and working
conditions of prison officers. They will ultimately lead any prison reform
programme.”
On the state of the prison in Ekiti State, Fapounda said: “We have just one
prison in Ado Ekiti but the prison faces similar challenges faced by other
prison facilities across the country. We need to improve the physical condition
of prisons and prisoners. Although much has been achieved in the area of
transportation of prisoners to courts, we should do more. The State Government
recognises the prisons as an important institution within our criminal justice
system. We are committed to supporting the prisons within our limited
resources.
“The Fayemi administration recognises the importance of the Act in achieving
sustainable prison reforms. We have offered the Controller General of Prisons
the possibility of hosting a national dialogue on the Act. We look forward to
working out the practical details.”
Uyo Prisons
For the Controller of Prisons, Akwa Ibom State Command, Mr Alex Oditah, the
troubling reality is the congestion in the prison, which has inadequate
facilities.
Oditah confirmed to Sunday Sun that Uyo and Ikot Ekpene prisons are the worst
affected, noting that inmates sleep on bare floor because of congestion.
As at the time of filing this report, the Uyo facility which was designed for
613 persons currently has 1,192 inmates; Ikot Ekpene Prison built for 408, had
extra 300 to make it 708; Eket Prison built for 123 has 350, whereas the prison
in the coastal town of Ikot Abasi which was designed for 230 ended with only
147 inmates.
Oditah disclosed that 70 per cent of the inmates in all the prisons in the
state are awaiting trial, some of whom had been detained for many years on very
flimsy reasons.
He also lamented that since provisions are usually made based on the capacity
of each prison, the extra number of inmates in Uyo, Oron, Eket and Ikot Ekpene
prisons, has put a lot of strains on management.
He appealed to the state government to replace the Abak Prison, which the
government demolished to make way to build a flyover and a civic centre with a
promise to rebuilding it within 9 months.
“Where the prison was situated, the state has now built a civic centre on that
land. We are supposed to take the state government to court for a breach of
contract and they’re even taking part of our property to build a structure,
which they collect rent. That civic centre is supposed to be for the prisons
because anything you build on my land belongs to me according to law,” Oditah
said.
Sunday Sun learned that the Uyo Prison, which caters for 21 local government
areas has only five functional vehicles even as the perimeter fence of the
prison is about to cave in because of gully erosion ravaging the area. The
fence is less than three metres from the ravine created by the massive erosion.
“We observe that Uyo Correctional Centre housing over 1,200 inmates has only
five functional vehicles as the only means of transporting inmates to over 52
courts within the prison’s jurisdiction. It is instructive to note that one of
the core functions of the service is to ensure that awaiting trial inmates are
brought before the court for their trials. This duty cannot be adequately
performed without adequate transportation.”
On the congestion in Uyo Prison built in 1902, the CLO said “Over-stretching of
facilities has attendant negative effects on the inmates who are crammed into
tiny spaces.”
The organization urged the state government to relocate Uyo Prison to a more
suitable location as it had promised.
“With the new reforms which emphasise correction and rehabilitation, the
accommodation of inmates should also be improved to give the necessary mental,
physical and psychological boost to the inmates,” CLO said.
Oyo Prisons
In Oyo State, the spokesperson of the Nigeria Prison Service in Ibadan, Mr
Olanrewaju Anjorin, told Sunday Sun that facilities in the 3 functional prisons
have been overstretched.
To achieve the goal of the new mandate of turning the present prisons into
really correctional centres, Anjorin said that critical stakeholders, including
the Nigeria Police Force, Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) and judiciary
would have to work in synergy.
He noted that the Controller-General of Nigerian Prisons Service, Ja’afaru
Ahmed, has worked hard to deliver the new prison at Olomi in Ibadan.
“When the fourth prison which has capacity to hold 2,000 inmates begins to
work, things will also change positively because the facility has higher
capacity,” Anjorin said.
Oyo State is host to 3 correctional centres – Agodi in Ibadan, the state
capital, Abolongo in Oyo town and the 3rd in Ogbomoso. Agodi Prison is the
biggest of the 3 with a capacity of 390. But as at Thursday, August 22, 2019 it
had 1,133 inmates. Abolongo, which was built to hold 160 inmates currently
inmates while the one at Ogbomosho, which has capacity for 80, but currently
has only about 49 inmates.
But the 4th prison in Olomi has 3 sections, which are normal cell, condemned
inmates cell and the female prison. However, only the normal prison for those
awaiting trial has been completed.
Meanwhile, Director and Coordinator, Centre for Justice, Mercy and
Reconciliation (CJMR), Ibadan, Pastor Hezekiah Olujobi, who has involved in
prison ministry since 1998 and is a regular visitor to prisons in Lagos and
Ogun states, to look into the cases of inmates that are legally detained and
sources legal practitioners that can assist such inmates on Pro Bono basis,
fully agrees with the observation made by Anjorin.
When asked whether he thought the service is currently structured to function
in its news capacity, he made a profound response:
“Well, changing of name does not matter much. But when you look at history of
renaming public organisations in this country we recall the case of National
Electric Power Authority (NEPA), which was changed to Power Holding Company of
Nigeria (PHCN) and later unbundled, did anything change? Change may not be
rapid, but there must be improvement. In terms of whether they have the
capacity or structure to meet up with the new mandate, I do not think that it
is feasible thing now. Let us take Agodi Prison as a good case study, whereby
the designed capacity is a little over 300 inmates, but you have over 1,000. To
actually meet the expectations, you need to address the structure. There should
be a friendly environment, where correctional steps can be applied and
achieved.
“The facilities in the prisons I have been visiting are very poor. In Oyo State
alone, we have 33 local government areas. There cannot be fewer than three
police stations in each local government, and they can be more than that. The
capacity of prisons cannot even accommodate the number of the accused persons.
We have congestion in the prisons because the facilities have been
overstretched.
“If truly we want to make our prisons correctional institutions, we must ensure
that there are programmes that can actually improve the lives of the inmates,
which the faith-based organisations have been doing. If you arrest somebody and
the person is remanded in prison custody for five to six years, before you
release him, and you don’t do follow-up, what do you think will happen?
Definitely, the tendency is high that the person may go back to crime, and that
is the gap we are filling.”
For the service to function effectively as a correctional institution, Olujobi
posited that vital operational modalities must be put in place. For example, he
stated that the government should take good care of the prison officials.
“In the same vein, Corporate Nigeria must play a role to make the new mandate
successful and beneficial to society. We all have a role to play. The public
needs constant education. They need to know where to come in, in terms of
rehabilitation and reintegration of the ex-inmates.
“Experience has shown that when inmates are released from the prison, they are
desperate to reconnect with their families or relations, or to be independent.
At that stage, it is impossible for the government to monitor them or track
them down because there is no structure to achieve it. I want the government to
put in place a structure to monitor ex-inmates in the society.
“Another aspect that I want the government to look into is the rehabilitation.
When inmates are freed from prisons, the government should identify
non-governmental organisations that can help in monitoring the ex-inmates in
the society to ensure that they live a good life. In the absence of that, they
may still go back to crime.”
In the view of a retired Controller of Prisons, Alhaji Iskil Yusuf, and who is
now the Executive Director, Child Development and Concerns Foundation, inmates
can make money from the correctional centres to support their family members
and resettle themselves after leaving the centre.
According to him, the renaming of the Nigeria Prison Service will have enormous
benefits if it is properly implemented. One, for the correctional officers, it
will change their psyche. It will specially orientate them to know that they
are working to correct the wrongs of the inmates. If there is a provision made
in the law that they must study the antecedents of these inmates to know what
they need to do to put them on a better pedestal before their discharge. This
will raise their consciousness to know that they are working there to correct
wrongs of these inmates.
But Alhaji Yusuf is disturbed that the facilities available now do not measure
up to the new mandate of serving as correctional centres.
“It is like putting the cart before the horse, which is not good enough. They
should have ensured that the facilities are there and are adequate to really
ensure that true correctional services can be rendered at the centres,” he
said.
(source: thesunnewsonline.com)
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