It
was a moment of joy recently for the mother of a prison inmate that had
been awaiting trial since 2005. Mrs. Maria Emmanuel danced and shouted
with joy on the court premises of the Lagos High Court, sitting in
Igbosere when Justice Deborah Oluwayemi released her son, Paul Samuel.
Five
other awaiting trial inmates were also released by the court. They
included Fatai Amidu, Adebayo Owuade, Gabriel Samuel, Mike Ofoje and
Lawal Karimu.
Speaking
with Daily Sun, Mrs. Samuel, a police corporal at Egbe Idimu Local
Government Area (and whose husband is a retired soldier), said she had
tried all efforts to cause her son to be released from prison – all to
no avail. She noted that her son was not arraigned since he was arrested
at Maryland, Lagos, in 2005 and had been awaiting advice from Director
of Public Prosecution (DPP) since then.
According
to her, she pleaded with her colleagues at the State Criminal
Investigation Department (SCID), Panti, Yaba where her son was first
taken but regretted that nobody, including her senior colleagues, was
able to help her.
“When
I went to Alagbon Police Station, no one could help me. They said it is
because he was an armed robbery suspect. I did not go to any senior
police officer to help me.
“These
past eight years have been terrible for me. I was fat before but if you
now look at me today, you will see that I am thin. I could not eat or
sleep; I was worried, thinking and crying even in the office. I was
running around for my son’s release.
“This
was compounded by the retirement of my husband from the Nigerian Army
due to his legs, which were affected during the January 2002 bomb blast
at Ikeja Cantonment in Lagos. He can’t work anymore and he has gone to
stay in Bayelsa where we hail from. I am the only one struggling for
everything,” she said.
She
stated that all her efforts to get her son out of prison were futile
until she met a lawyer, Ahmed Kazeem-Adetola from a non-governmental
organisation, Prisoners Right Advocacy Initiative.
Unable
to contain her happiness over the new developments on the court
premises, she enthused: “I am so happy. I have not started to dance. I
want to praise my God. This is the eighth year that I have been fighting
for my son’s freedom. I will call my husband to tell him the good
news.”
Her
son, who was 17 years old when he was arrested was to be arraigned over
a charge for armed robbery in the name of another suspect, who also
bears Paul Samuel but who had been arrested in 2010.
Fortunately,
his lawyer was present in court. His lawyer was able to clarify issues
to the court. The court released him on the ground that he had been in
prison without trial over the alleged offence of armed robbery for eight
years.
Reliving
the incidents that led to his imprisonment, Paul vowed to be careful
about his choice of friends. According to him, all he did was to greet a
friend and he ended up in prison. He noted that the ‘friend’ bailed
himself out without looking back to see how he fared.
“On
a Sunday morning, I was on my way to Maryland when I saw a friend and
we greeted. I shook his hands and suddenly, the police came to raid the
place and they arrested everyone they saw. They took everyone to Panti.
“I
could not contact my family to come and bail me out and I didn’t have
money. Many of those people I was detained with bailed themselves out
with money. But those of us that didn’t have money were left and they
charged us before a magistrate court for robbery.
“They dumped us at Kirikiri Prison and later I was transferred to Ikoyi Prisons where I was taken to Maximum Prisons.
“It
is saddening to know that I was in prison for eight years over a charge
of robbery without any trial or anybody showing up as complainant in
the case. One of the things I have learnt now is that I will be careful
of who I choose to be my friend,” he said.
However,
Paul is hopeful that life after imprisonment would be better because he
learnt how to make shoes and sandals in prison. He says he wants to
make use of that knowledge and to also organise seminars for people to
know how to make shoes.
“At
least, I learnt how to make leather shoes, slippers and sandals during
those eight years. I want to be making shoes and I will be lecturing
people on how to make them.
“When
I was there, as a devout Catholic, I attached myself to the church.
That was where I was able to get good food and clothes. Prison food is
horrible. It isn’t easy to be in that place for eight years without
freedom, good food, clothes and even sex!”
Reacting
to the development, Paul’s lawyer, Kazeem-Adetola, noted that the
problem of prison congestion stemmed from the Federal Government,
Ministry of Justice and the Nigerian police. He said his organisation
had been working hard in the past two years for the release of inmates,
who had been awaiting trial for many years without trial.
“We
have filed fundamental human rights applications, press releases,
letters to the Inspector-General of Police and the Ministry of Justice
but these are not enough. We could try Habeas Corpus but the government,
the police and the justice ministry need to sit up and do the right
things.
“For
instance, in this particular case, Paul Samuel’s file was mistaken for
another’s with the same name. If they had done a thorough job, they
would have seen that this Paul was arrested in 2005 while the other one
was in 2010.
“Filing
applications takes time and the court may award paltry sums as
compensation so we filed an application for 106 inmates and we can
safely say today that 90 people have been released.
“Filing
fundamental rights application may be misconstrued as an avenue to get
money, so we have decided not to file such now,” he said.
Source: The Sun
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