Why Kano prisons are overcrowded

On May 25, 2016, Minister of Interior, retired General Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau made a disclosure in Kano that federal government would build an additional prison that year with a view to decongesting the existing ones in the state. Dambazau made the pronouncement while reviewing one year achievements of his ministry during a town hall meeting held at Coronation Hall, Kano […]

On May 25, 2016, Minister of Interior, retired General Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau made a disclosure in Kano that federal government would build an additional prison that year with a view to decongesting the existing ones in the state.

Dambazau made the pronouncement while reviewing one year achievements of his ministry during a town hall meeting held at Coronation Hall, Kano state government house.

The minister also said government would rehabilitate Kurmawa Central Prison in the state, noting that the federal government was worried about the deteriorating condition of prison formations across the country and there was determination on its part to address the problem.

Kano Chronicle observed that prison congestion is one of the major problems disturbing government and prison authorities in the state.

The minister’s pronouncement at the meeting inspired not only the prison officials, who are directly dealing with the inmates, but also the police, legal practitioners, judges and other stakeholders.

However, close to a year after the announcement, nothing comes from the federal government regarding the construction of an additional prison in the state, even though the state has continued to face challenges pertaining to congestion in the prisons.

The state has 10 prison formations with the two of them located at Kurmawa and Goron Dutse in the state metropolis.

The remaining are spread in eight local councils of the state which include Wudil, Kiru, Rano, Sumaila, Bichi, Tudun-Wada, Gwarzo and Dawakin-Tofa.

However, the number is grossly inadequate to meet the demand of the state.

For instance, 690 inmates is the official capacity of Kurmawa central prison but the detention centre is accommodating 1,778 inmates at the moment, comprising 717 convicts and 1,061 awaiting trials. Inmates are being accommodated in mud cells in the prison that was said to be constructed over 100 years ago with most of its toilets in bad
condition.

Kano Chronicle further observed that most of cells structures in the Kano prisons are in dilapidated conditions; then the problems of inadequate supply of drugs and uniforms for the inmates.

The situation at Goron Dutse prison, which has the capacity of accommodating only 638 inmates, is not encouraging. The prison has 1,698 inmates presently, comprising 761 convicted males and 891 awaiting trails; then 23 convicted females and 23 others awaiting trials.

According to the above statistics, the state has a total of 1,975 awaiting trial inmates in the two prisons. Almost 60 percent and more than 53 percent of inmates are awaiting trials in the Kurmawa and Goron Dutse prisons respectively. They are largely kept there on remand due to prolong adjournments of their cases and some of them had their cases adjourned between 3 and 4 months.

Further findings at Kurmawa prison revealed that each of the two cells meant for Condemned Criminals (CC) was intended for 20 inmates, but as at the time this reporter visited the place, the two cells were accommodating about 100 inmates.

There are also a number of lifers, who had spent 10 years in the prison and over age inmates whose ages are between 60 and above.

On the other hand, the federal government, through the prison service, has introduced a skill acquisition training programme for the inmates.

The inmates in various prisons across the state are being trained in tailoring, shoe making, welding, carpentry, soap making, detergents making and catering among others.

The programme, aimed at rehabilitating inmates during their stay in the prisons, would equally help them so that by the time they finish their jail terms and return to their respective communities they would have something to do for a living.

When contacted for comment, Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Magaji Musa Majia, said the police were doing their best in ensuring that case files were sent to office of Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) in the state ministry for justice for legal advice.

He said: “The inspector general of police has given an order that any police prosecution officer that has case in a court should be release immediately to attend to his case in the court whenever his case comes up. He also directed us to ensure following our cases to their logical conclusions. This simply means that we should go beyond the level of
parading suspects.”

Majia said from January to date, the state Command had sent no less than 500 case files to the DPP for legal advice.

Also commenting on the issue, Barrister Lamido Soron-Dinki said three factors were responsible for the congestion of prisons in the state.

He said: “There is the issue of delay in brining the case files from the police, laxity on the part of prosecution counsel and lastly, the nature of judgments pertaining to minor cases.

“The police are in the habit of delaying case files especially for capital offences and you know there is no way a case can be assign to prosecution counsel at the ministry without case file. There is a problem of laxity on the part of prosecution counsel. Sometimes these prosecution counsels are not willing to file the cases assigned to them for reason best know to them. This is also contributing to the congestion in our prisons.

“Pertaining to the last factor which involves minor cases, the problem largely lies on the judges. The problem here is that most of these cases are finable but instead for the judges to give an option of fine in their judgments, they would just sentence the accused person without an optio of fine.”

Soron-Dinki said if these three problems could be addressed prison formations in the state could be decongested within a short time.