Ikoyi Prison: A facility no longer needed

The stench oozing from the premises lent weight to the argument on the need to relocate the corrective facility. Surely, the smell was horrible. The puff of the odour from the cells was so strong that one could not but wonder how nauseating inside the cells themselves would be. Despite the offensive odour, the prison […]

The stench oozing from the premises lent weight to the argument on the need to relocate the corrective facility. Surely, the smell was horrible. The puff of the odour from the cells was so strong that one could not but wonder how nauseating inside the cells themselves would be.

Despite the offensive odour, the prison seems to be a ceaseless host to guests of all shades. For the more than 20 minutes that Daily Trust had to wait to meet the Chief Warder, the prisons premises was bubbling with visitors, especially non-governmental organizations, evangelists and relations of prisoners.

Regrettably, however, the Ikoyi Prison is one facility that its neighbours and the Lagos State government no longer celebrate as a corrective place.

Established in 1955, five years before Nigeria’s independence, the prison was, maybe at a time, an “appreciable” landmark for its residents who would be proud to use as a compass to direct visitors to their homes. Not anymore. Residents just don’t want it there anymore.

The Ikoyi area was and still is the highbrow part of Lagos Island specially designed in the early 1900s to be home of the British colonialists.  As it were, there were enough land areas, no congestion and so the colonialists could conveniently build a prison in the area.

Ikoyi prison is one of the famous prisons in Nigeria that had housed a number of politically inmates. Its closeness to Dodan Barracks, the former Nigeria’s seat of government, made it strategically placed to serve the military juntas.

But Ikoyi has since overreached itself, with only the very affluent able to rent a house or buy a piece of land to develop. The area is regarded as exclusively reserved for the elite and the aristocrat and a corrective facility that the Ikoyi Prison is now is looking out of place.

Located on Akanbi Danmola Street, off Ribadu Road and off Awolowo Road, the prison stands as the odd one out in a growing and expensive real estate hub that Ikoyi is. Apart from a Magistrate Court near the prison, the area is largely occupied by businesses outfits, offices and residential apartments in a mix of palatial luxury and hospitality homes.

Prior to the scrapping of the monthly sanitation exercise by the Lagos State Government, the Commissioner for the Environment, Dr. Babatunde Adejare, during one of the exercises in October, hinted of the government plans to relocate the prisons after due consultation with the federal government. What could be gleaned from the proposed relocation is the fact that it is being propelled by the environmental concern which state officials and Ikoyi residents argue the prison has generated.

Besides, the congestion in the prisons has overstretched the facility’s capabilities. When the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Olufumilayo Atilade, visited the facility in September and freed 20 awaiting trial inmates, the Controller, Mr. Tinuoye Olumide, disclosed that there were about 2,358 inmates in the 800-capacity prison.

Beyond the stench from the cells, Dr. Adejare and his team were faced the unpleasant reality of the prison’s broken sewage system. While reiterating that the state government would pursue relocation of the facility, the commissioner promised that the sewage problem would be addressed.

Passing a sentence on it, Dr. Adejare declared that Ikoyi Prison had passed its usefulness noting that the most valuable land in Africa is there and should not have such a facility in that location.

The Commissioner’s reference to Ikoyi as “the most valuable land” has set off talk that Lagos State Government’s intention to relocate the prison resides more in commercial considerations than environmental.

Real estate experts estimated the value of the vast expanse of land on which Ikoyi Prison sits as in billions of Naira. It is even being speculated that a purchase deal has been wrapped up between a billionaire businessman and the state government on the prison land.

A prison warder who spoke on condition of anonymity agreed it would be appropriate to relocate Ikoyi Prison to a more suitable place.

Another resident in the area, Mr. Ifeanyi James, also viewed the move to relocate the prison as a welcome development. “How can you explain it that residential buildings surround a prison facility? This is not normal. All of us living in this environment are vulnerable. We live in fear and I think it would be a good development if it is relocated,” James said.

Activist lawyer, Mr. Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, told Daily Trust he was of the view that Ikoyi Prison needed to be relocated. Expressing sympathy with the Lagos State Government on what he pointed out as over-concentration of military formations in the state, Adegboruwa said: “There are too many institutions belonging to the Army and other armed forces in Lagos and that seems to be hindering development within the city.”

According to him, when civilians surround a prison facility, the tendency is that the inmates are daily exposed to the temptation of normal life, which is not supposed to be because a prison is supposed to be a place of seclusion.

At the moment, there has been no clear-cut policy direction on the proposed relocation as talks were understood to be on-going between the Lagos and Federal Governments.   

In its 61 years of existence, Ikoyi Prison boasts of having been home to prisoners and detainees of both high and low calibre. Big names in Nigeria’s social, economic and political landscapes had experienced accommodation in the prison, together with many criminals.