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Two awaiting trial inmates in Afokang Prison, in Calabar, Mr. Ntiero Effiong and Mr. Okon Eke, died two Wednesdays ago in their cells due to illnesses related to malnutrition. Another awaiting trial inmate died today Sunday in Cell A1, a cell holding over 79 inmates. The third inmate, an elderly man, was brought in since 2021 in good shape, but due to malnutrition, he developed multiple illnesses that saw parts of his body decaying.
It is worthy of note that all three dead inmates are awaiting trial detainees who were never convicted by any court, of the alleged crime(s) that took them to Afokang prison. They were still presumed innocent until proven otherwise. But they have died without a chance to defend themselves. Whether they were guilty or not, their friends, neighbours, family members and the world, would conclude that they committed crimes and were sent to go and die in jail. The guilt will live with their loved ones forever, yet they weren’t given a chance to defend themselves.
The new trending pictures and videos of what is served to inmates in Afokang Prison as food are horrible, to say the least. Higher authorities have to intervene and do something promptly. The federal government budgeted N24,447,582,237 for the feeding and welfare of inmates in 2024. The prison authorities also complained that the money isn’t adequate for the needs of the inmates. As at 26th of August 2024, the month that just ended yesterday, the total number of inmates in all the prisons in Nigeria was 84,575 and only 26,913 have been convicted. The remaining 57,662 are awaiting trial inmates and I can bet that more than 50 percent of them are innocent based on previous conviction statistics.
So before you conclude those who go to prison are criminals that must be allowed to suffer and die, you need those figures to get clarity that many of those who are there are actually there for no reason. Yours sincerely has been to several prisons for no reason. All the courts I was taken to, said I didn’t do any wrong and acquitted me. But I went through several jails. Such is the fate of many locked behind those iron bars. And for many of them, they may never get a fair chance to defend themselves like the three that have died and many others dying in jails across the country.
Catering to the needs and welfare of people in prisons is an injunction written in every known holy book of all known religions. It is not a favor that those who are free are doing to those who are held, it is rather a command to mankind to be our brother’s keeper, knowing that anyone can be a victim of a decayed society where we don’t watch out for one another.
Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.
