By Lillian Okenwa


Days ago, an Upper Area Court in Gwagwalada, Abuja, sentenced a 19-year-old student, Hillary Yunana, to four months imprisonment for stealing noodles from a shop. Charged with housebreaking, and theft, the judge, Sani Umar, sentenced Yunana after he pleaded guilty to stealing seven packets of spaghetti, five packets of Indomie noodles, and a cash sum of N10, 000, all valued at N13, 000.

The prosecuting counsel, Abdullahi Tanko, told the court that Yunana contravened the provisions of Sections 346 and 287 of the Penal Code when he broke and entered the shop belonging to Gift Ugochukwu, of the same address on March 4, 2022.

Conversely, in the case between the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC and a former Caretaker Chairman of the Ogori/Mangogo Local Government Area of Kogi State, Gabriel Daudu, who was accused of laundering N1.4bn belonging to the state, for instance, bagged two years in jail after Justice Inyang Ekwo at the end of a six-year trial pronounced him guilty on 77 out of the 208 counts.

The cumulative amount laundered in the proven 77 counts was determined by the judge to be N98m. As punishment for his offence, Justice Ekwo sentenced Daudu to two years imprisonment on each of the 77 counts, which added up to 154 years imprisonment. However, since the judge said the sentences would run concurrently, Daudu was actually sentenced to only two years in jail. In the meantime ordinary Nigerians are either frustrated by crime and insecurity or frustrated into crime by harsh economic realities, leading to the congestion of prisons.


Stories of how the rich in Nigeria get a slap on the wrist over mindboggling theft of public funds abound. Alluding to this assertion, rights activist, Femi Falana, SAN, at a public event once condemned the Nigerian bar, the bench the criminal justice system for working in favour of the rich as against poor Nigerians. Falana who accused the anti-graft agencies in the country as being part of the problem stated that “By virtue of section 17 (2) (a) of the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), every citizen shall have equality of rights, obligations, and opportunities before the law.


“But in practice, the rich and poor defendants are not treated equally by Nigerian courts. Apart from the fact that rich litigants have the means to hire the services of the best lawyers in any area of the law, the courts are manned by judges who are not neutral in the class struggle being waged daily by the Nigerian people.”


A 25 July 2020 Editorial by Viewers Corner News puts it this way: “The children of those you victimised because they have no bargaining power to fight their cases would not let you have peace as long as you favour only those with bargaining power. [Most] politicians in Nigeria who stole billions of Naira thereby crippling the economy of the country (Nigeria) were given lesser sentences which involve an option of a fine. Most of those corrupt politicians prefer the option of a fine method than going to prison which they paid instantly after a guilty verdict has been pronounced on them but those who stole little were given longer jail terms without any option of fine. …[Their] actions, stealing billions of Naira is the reason Nigeria is almost grounded… In some countries of the world, embezzling such a huge amount of money attracts a death sentence…”


It is interesting to note that while prisons are shutting down across Europe, Nigeria’s Federal Government is set to launch six modern custodial facilities in the six geo-political zones in the country. The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, stated this while inspecting the on-going Model Maximum Security Custodial facility project, Janguza, Kumbotso Local Government Area of Kano State. Mr. Aregbesola said the project was part of programmes initiated by President Muhammadu Buhari to reform the correctional service.


Netherland for instance has closed many of its prisons. The drop in the country’s crime rate in part explains why the Netherlands’ prisons are emptying. A 2016 government study on capacity also noted that a focus on sentencing, with both an increase in shorter sentences and examining how crimes impact society, have helped reduce the prison population, says Wiebe Alkema, spokesperson at the Ministry of Justice and Security. The Netherlands now has just 61 prisoners per 100,000 people in the general population, ranking among the lowest in Europe.


Dutch criminology researchers for years have pointed to the effectiveness of alternative sentencing. In 2013, Hilde Wermink, assistant professor of criminology at Leiden University, and colleagues concluded in their research that imprisonment is not an effective way to reduce crime, adding that longer prison sentences, in particular, are not leading to lower crime rates.


They observed that both community service and electronic monitoring yield better results. Although the latter is sometimes seen as a softer punishment, Wermink and colleagues found it actually decreases re-offending rates. A 2015 study compared detainees in Belgium with sentences of between six months and three years and found that the subjects who completed their sentence at home wearing detectable ankle bracelets were less likely to re-offend than peers who had completed their sentence behind bars.


Similarly, Norway is said to have moved away from a punitive “lock-up” approach and sharply cut reoffending rates. The borgenproject.org reports that since the 1990s, Norway’s prison system has evolved into spaces that represent comfort, healing, and inclusivity


“Changing its approach and attitudes towards prisoners, Norway is moulding high-functioning members of society. In return, former prisoners are gaining the necessary skills in order to contribute to Norway’s economy.


“As of 2014, Norway’s incarceration rate was at only 75 per 100,000 people. In addition, since developing its new prison system in the 1990s, its recidivism rate has decreased from around 60-70% to only 20% in recent years. The main reason for these statistics is due to a focus on “restorative justice,” an approach that identifies prisons in the same category as rehabilitation facilities. Rather than focusing on the punishment and mistreatment of its prisoners, Norway has the primary goal of reintegrating its prisoners as stable contributors to communities.”


John Mrabure, an Acting Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCS), at an event last year said the overcrowding Correctional Centres remain a major problem confronting the service. Speaking at an event organised by Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA) in Abuja, Mrabure said staff of the service are not acquainted with the full provisions of the NCS Act 2019, which provides for non-custodial sentencing. He added that its personnel requires training to grasp the full potential of the law. Non-custodial sentence is a punishment given by a court of competent jurisdiction that does not involve a prison term. Likewise, Tunde Oladipo, Deputy Comptroller-General of Corrections/Non-Custodial Directorate, who also spoke at the event, blamed the directorate’s inability to fully implement the non-custodial sentencing on the paucity of funds. He asked stakeholders to assist the directorate with funding to enable the department to carry out its mandate


A couple of weeks ago, the Chief Judge of Katsina State, Hon. Justice Musa Danladi Abubakar revealed that 80% of the inmates in Katsina State’s Correctional Centres are mostly those awaiting trials since 2016. He said this is due to the non-performance of the justice ministry as well as an inadequate number of legal personnel from the ministry to handle cases. Justice Abubakar, who made the above disclosure in his office in Katsina while receiving the newly appointed Katsina State Commissioner of Police, Idris Dabban, and his team, further blamed the State’s Ministry of Justice and its personnel, whom he said are mainly politicians who pay lesser attention to judicial duties.


He said, “If the Attorney-General is there all the time, the OC Legal will have his work cut out. Unfortunately, some technicalities that often emanate from the Justice Ministry often take over and cause delays. The Commissioner of Police, the Director of Public Prosecution, and the Attorney-General ought to sit down regularly to iron out pending issues.”

And so while countries in the West are striving to embrace global best practices, shutting down prisons, reforming and rehabilitating their citizens, Nigeria is still struggling to understand the value of human lives


This article was first published by Law & Society Magazine.

Okenwa    is a Lawyer and Editor -in-Chief of Law & Society Magazine.