Z Aid tasks Nigerians on 3 released inmates detained by SARS, NCoS for 16 years without trial

The Police refused to heed the DPP’s advice which directed them to move their case files to Ogun State where the matter originated and that was why they were abandoned in custody. We also intervened in the case of another inmate whose case was struck out but was abandoned in the medium correctional centre in Kirikiri for more than one year until we discovered him”, he said, adding “We cannot be talking human rights and have such situations in our correctional centres 76 years after the Universal Declaration for Human Rights, UDHR

 

• Detainees eating human faeces in Lagos SARS cell

 

Emmanuel Ukudolo I Wednesday, December 11, 2024

 

LAGOS, Nigeria –  A  non-governmental organisation, Zarephath Aid or  (‘Z’ Aid) has called on Nigerians from all works of life to come to the aid of three prison inmates who were detained by the Lagos State Special Anti-Robbery Squad(SARS) and the Nigerian Correctional Services NCoS for sixteen years without trial before they were recently released.

Founder Z  Aid,  Mr. Ben Abraham who addressed a press conference on “The Question of increasing pre-trial inmates in Nigerian correctional centres and the urgent need for reforms “ with the affected detainees,  Moses Abiodun(Trailer Mechani

c),  Kasem Adesina(Driver) and  Owei Tila said SARS invaded the homes of the detainees  at about 3.AM, while they were at home and naked with their wives in their bedroom, whisked them away and kept them under detention for almost two decades without trial.

In respect of Moses Abiodun, Abraham said the DPO in charge of his detention cell ignored DPP’s advice to have him and his fellow detainee transferred to Ogun State where the alleged offence of ‘conspiracy’ was committed.

He said the three former illegal detainees of SARS and NCoS who are now between 48 and 50 years have become almost useless to themselves having lost their source of livelihood during their  ill-fated ordeal and have become liabilities to their infirm and aged parents.

He appealed to Nigerians to come to their assistant and help to resettle them to enable them kick start their lives afresh. He said the rigours and improper documentation of charge sheets occasion by rapid movement of magistrates has made it a Herculean task securing documents to kick off a legal process that could engender government compensation for them but that even if the case of compensation succeeds , getting government to pay what the court would award is more or less like making the proverbial head of a camel to pass through the eye of the needle hence urgent need for Nigerians to come to the aid of these victims of a failed system.

He called for reforms that would make the police and the NCoS officials to perform their duties and in record time through regular auditing of pre-trial inmates as part of effort to avoid the kind of national embarrassment that has befallen the three illegal detainees and many others still languishing in SARS and NCoS without trial.

He called on government to enlist trusted NGOS and retired judges for the auditing process to bring sanity to the system. He said his organisation, Z Aid was lucky to have found the three during visits to the NCoS, adding that officials of the correctional centres are fed up with increasing number of pre-trial inmates brought about by unprofessional acts of the Nigeria Police Force, sluggish process in the issuance of DPP advice.

He provided details of categories of inmates in correctional centres across Nigeria.

Inmates who are attending trial in court; inmates whose cases are stalled by magistrates court either because the courts don’t regularly sit or because the prison vehicle is unable to take them to court; Inmates whose casefiles are not available because the police is unable to transmit the files to the DPP for advice;  inmates who are awaiting the DPP advice for elongated time and inmates abandoned due to one administrative issue or the other.

For Moses Abiodun and Kazeem Adeshina, he said each of them stayed a total of 16 years from the date of arrest in 1998 until their recent release.

“The Police refused to heed the DPP’s advice which directed them to move their case files to Ogun State where the matter originated and that was why they were abandoned in custody. We also intervened in the case of another inmate whose case was struck out but was abandoned in the medium correctional centre in Kirikiri for more than one year until we discovered him”, he said, adding “We cannot be talking human rights and have such situations in our correctional centres 76 years after the Universal Declaration for Human Rights, UDHR”

Speaking during the conference, Moses Abiodun said  he is currently doing nothing but currently living with his aged and infirm father in Osun. He called for assistant, stressing that but for the grace of God he would have passed out in SARS detention centres where he was hanged upside down for several hours, no food and water for weeks, stressing that inmates who have been starved for weeks are forced to consume human faeces inside Lagos SARS cell to survive.

He speaks on source of drinking water: “We only drink water if the police bring in a well to do detainee who will buy pure water to bath. It is while he is bathing that we rush there with our  barehands  stretch out for the water dripping out from the body of the man who is bathing.

“We only drink garri, once in a month if a rich detainee buys garri and we join him to drink”, he said, adding that SARS broke into his home at about 3.am while he was in bed naked with his wife, tore the electric wire in his room and used it as handcuff to tie him. He said it was  the SARS who took his trouser from wardrobe before he could dress up and follow them.

Kasem Adesina, who also spoke in Yoruba thanked God that Z Aid found him. He said he was among those scheduled for execution by firing squad  in Lagos SARS but it was the OC SARS that stopped it when he found out that he and his colleague were detained illegally without any clear cut offence.

He was also smuggled out of his bedroom naked with his wife and that it was neigbours that provided him something to put on before he was whisked away in the wee hours of the night by SARS.