i know that i was supposed to write a blog a day but this particular opinion won't seem to let me go to bed without putting it down, so please forgive my apparent over-zealousness.
there i was at work earlier today, minding my own business and flipping through the dailies when i stumbled on page 15 of the Guardian newspapers. it was an article on the "magnanimous" release of overdue inmates from the prisons of lagos ostensibly because they had outstayed the term for which they could have served had they been properly tried by a court of competent jurisdiction. two major things crossed my mind while reading this article, the first was: why, in a country with about 60,000 lawyers, do we still have people in detention without trial for periods exceeding 6 months? should the NBA lagos branch actually feel like heroes for this commendable feat of courage or should all the lawyers bow their heads in shame for their apparent lack of significant 'pro bono' activities for the down trodden who cannot afford legal fees?
the second was: did the chief judge of lagos state thoroughly review the files of these individuals before deciding to release them from custody, for fear of releasing an unrepentant and vengeful individual back into society to revenge his incanceration on well-meaning persons who reported his unlawful activities to the police in the first place?
although reading the article did not answer any of my questions, i was appaled by the story of one of the newly-released ex-detainees - mrs. oluwatoyin azeez. to cut her otherwise long story short, she was arrested by the lagos state task force on environmental sanitation for hawking pure-water on the streets. as you may know, the lagos state government has been on the roll in cleaning up lagos, planting flowers, beautifying the environment and ridding the streets of hawkers, beggars and miscreants. good initiative you must agree. but here lies the catch...the enforcement is carried out by a few area boys that were hurriedly put into uniforms of many varying colours and their methods of enforcement are less than civil.
what is particularly saddening about this woman's story is that she had a baby on her back on the day she was ceased on the streets of lagos. in the most unimaginable manner, the wailing baby was wrenched forcefully from her back by unknown officers of the task force while the woman was shoved screaming into a huge black maria vehicle with a host of other alleged offenders. as she was being pushed into the van, little did she know that it would be ten (10) months before she would even be able to tell her story. 10 months during which she would not see her baby and would not be told of the baby's whereabouts. any woman, infact parent, knows the unimaginable anguish that losing a child can bring...not knowing where the child was taken to...if the child was still alive. nobody deserves to be put through that trauma, ever.
and so on 3rd april 2009, while other released ex-detainees were praising the chief judge and the NBA for their magnanimity, mrs. azeez could only shed tears. she doesn't even know where to begin to look for the baby and cannot understand how she spent ten months in prison without trial for selling pure water.
much as i will not stretch the liability for the actions of the task force team, to the admirable govenor of lagos state, i am of the opinion that he cannot continue to rush his reforms at the expense of human life, freedom and dignity. the high courts in lagos are full of pending suits against the state stemming from the rash activities of the state in the pursuit of its environmental sanitation programmes. the entire world had since the early 90's moved into the era of respect for the human being (even where caught in the most dastardly of acts), and Nigeria, nay lagos, cannot be an exception...not in the least because the governor of the state is a respected senior advocate.
no matter what offence mrs. azeez has commited, it is not enough to release her from detention and stop there. redress must follow. not only should her baby, who has been without her mother for 10 months (in the hope that the dear baby has not been fatally impacted by this whole drama) be found and returned to her, there needs to be laid down rules for dealing with environmental offenders as there is no moral justification for keeping any individual, even considering the "nigerian factor", for months on end without trial in the totally dehumanizing conditions that we know the nigerian prisons to be.
i do not think that a city as large as lagos cannot afford to set up and maintain special offences courts for the purpose of summarily trying environmental offenders to avoid these sorts of scenarios that have the long term tendency of marring the enviable records of the state governor. A word they say...
P.S: Thank you to everyone who took out time to read my blog today, it meant something to me. Aisha Nagogo, you rock!
there i was at work earlier today, minding my own business and flipping through the dailies when i stumbled on page 15 of the Guardian newspapers. it was an article on the "magnanimous" release of overdue inmates from the prisons of lagos ostensibly because they had outstayed the term for which they could have served had they been properly tried by a court of competent jurisdiction. two major things crossed my mind while reading this article, the first was: why, in a country with about 60,000 lawyers, do we still have people in detention without trial for periods exceeding 6 months? should the NBA lagos branch actually feel like heroes for this commendable feat of courage or should all the lawyers bow their heads in shame for their apparent lack of significant 'pro bono' activities for the down trodden who cannot afford legal fees?
the second was: did the chief judge of lagos state thoroughly review the files of these individuals before deciding to release them from custody, for fear of releasing an unrepentant and vengeful individual back into society to revenge his incanceration on well-meaning persons who reported his unlawful activities to the police in the first place?
although reading the article did not answer any of my questions, i was appaled by the story of one of the newly-released ex-detainees - mrs. oluwatoyin azeez. to cut her otherwise long story short, she was arrested by the lagos state task force on environmental sanitation for hawking pure-water on the streets. as you may know, the lagos state government has been on the roll in cleaning up lagos, planting flowers, beautifying the environment and ridding the streets of hawkers, beggars and miscreants. good initiative you must agree. but here lies the catch...the enforcement is carried out by a few area boys that were hurriedly put into uniforms of many varying colours and their methods of enforcement are less than civil.
what is particularly saddening about this woman's story is that she had a baby on her back on the day she was ceased on the streets of lagos. in the most unimaginable manner, the wailing baby was wrenched forcefully from her back by unknown officers of the task force while the woman was shoved screaming into a huge black maria vehicle with a host of other alleged offenders. as she was being pushed into the van, little did she know that it would be ten (10) months before she would even be able to tell her story. 10 months during which she would not see her baby and would not be told of the baby's whereabouts. any woman, infact parent, knows the unimaginable anguish that losing a child can bring...not knowing where the child was taken to...if the child was still alive. nobody deserves to be put through that trauma, ever.
and so on 3rd april 2009, while other released ex-detainees were praising the chief judge and the NBA for their magnanimity, mrs. azeez could only shed tears. she doesn't even know where to begin to look for the baby and cannot understand how she spent ten months in prison without trial for selling pure water.
much as i will not stretch the liability for the actions of the task force team, to the admirable govenor of lagos state, i am of the opinion that he cannot continue to rush his reforms at the expense of human life, freedom and dignity. the high courts in lagos are full of pending suits against the state stemming from the rash activities of the state in the pursuit of its environmental sanitation programmes. the entire world had since the early 90's moved into the era of respect for the human being (even where caught in the most dastardly of acts), and Nigeria, nay lagos, cannot be an exception...not in the least because the governor of the state is a respected senior advocate.
no matter what offence mrs. azeez has commited, it is not enough to release her from detention and stop there. redress must follow. not only should her baby, who has been without her mother for 10 months (in the hope that the dear baby has not been fatally impacted by this whole drama) be found and returned to her, there needs to be laid down rules for dealing with environmental offenders as there is no moral justification for keeping any individual, even considering the "nigerian factor", for months on end without trial in the totally dehumanizing conditions that we know the nigerian prisons to be.
i do not think that a city as large as lagos cannot afford to set up and maintain special offences courts for the purpose of summarily trying environmental offenders to avoid these sorts of scenarios that have the long term tendency of marring the enviable records of the state governor. A word they say...
P.S: Thank you to everyone who took out time to read my blog today, it meant something to me. Aisha Nagogo, you rock!
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