By Glory Abuh-Adejoh
The Legal Aid Council of Nigeria (LACON), has said it provided legal representation for the 101 detainees that were released from the Kirikiri medium and maximum correctional facilities in, Lagos on Oct.7.
The director, LACON FCT office, Mr Abdulfattai Bakre made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Friday in Abuja.
”The detainees were not swapped with the 23 remaining Abuja-Kaduna train passengers released on Oct.5
” These two incidence are mere coincidences. The process that led to the release of these detainees started in February before the train passengers were kidnapped.
“The legal Aids council received a certified document from Bauchi relating to some of the inmates on April 14 and fundamental human rights enforcement application on behalf of the inmates was filed on May 18.
“Nigerians should disregard the newspaper publication by a Non-Government Organisation (NGO)
”The NGO filed an enforcement application for the detainees, praying for their release after years of incarceration without prosecution.
”The court however struck out the suit on technical grounds and held that the suit ought to have been filed separately and not together as done by the counsel.
”The legal aids council therefore as part of its mandate to provide legal representation for indigent Nigerians decided to take up the case on pro bono,” Bakre said.
In response to how the detainees ended in the correctional facilities to their release, the director in his response said that it all started in 2009.
”The detainees were arrested in June, July and Aug. 2009 in Bauchi, Kano and Maiduguri and arraigned on various charges bordering on possession of fire arms, belonging to unlawful society and arson.
” In Bauchi 169 were arraigned before a Federal High Court and Magistrates’ Court, granted bail and 17 of them could not meet their bail conditions.
” In similar vein, the ones from Kano and Maiduguri too were arraigned, granted bail however, some remained in custody as they could not meet the bail conditions as ordered by the courts.
“Then on March 13, 2011, the military went into the correctional facilities in the three states and were transferred to the Kirikiri correctional centres and they were there without any further prosecution” he added.
Bakre in addition said that meanwhile the Federal High Court, Bauchi where the 17 inmates were arraigned on Nov.30, 2010 struck out the matter for lack of diligent prosecution.
He said that same process happened in 2011 in the Federal High Court, Kano.
He equally averred that the court in Maiduguri struck out the case against the detainees for same reason on July 30,2013.
Furthermore, he said as at the time of their incarceration after 2013, there was no charge against them before any court in Nigeria.
He said even if there were to serve the sentence for the offences they were charged for, many of them will have finished serving their sentence long ago.
He said that all the necessary documents relating to the arrest, arraignment, striking out of the suits were gotten from the courts by the council’s officers in the three states.
” Before we took up their matter, we got approval of the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Correctional Service, to be granted access to the detainees.
” We interviewed them one on one and took down their statements and some of them said they were arrested on their farms, while in transit and on the streets with their friends.
” Out of the 101 inmates released, less than 10 of them agreed to have been Boko Haram members as majority denied ever belonging to the group.
” It was after this that the council wrote to the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Minister of Justice and filed the applications on behalf of the detainees as applicants and the Nigeria Police Force ( NPF) and AGF as respondents respectively.
The applications were filed before the Federal High Court, Lagos in three different courts.
He said the council felt that since it was at the order of the court the applicants were in custody, their release needed to be before a court too.
Bakre said that the matters came up before Justices T.G Rigim, A.O Awogboro and I.N Iweibo, within the jurisdiction of the facilities where the applicants were held.
Bakre said that 40 of the detainees suits were filed separately and the remaining 61 filed as a single suit.
He said that after filing the fundamental human rights enforcement application parties agreed to an amicable settlement of the dispute and resolved that Terms of settlement be adopted in court and entered as Consent judgment by the courts.
He said thereafter the court issued a warrant of release for all the 101 detainees.
“The applicants sought to have an amicable settlement of the dispute between them and the respondents.
“Part of terms of settlement is that the respondents will not object to the release of the applicants from custody.
“That it will best serve the interest of justice and all parties to release the applicants from further incarceration.
” That the applicants in consideration of their release from continued detention unconditionally forego any form of prayers for compensation.
“They shall not either through Legal Aid Council of Nigeria or any Private Legal practitioner or other body or any other person whatsoever designated to institute proceedings for compensations with regards to these applications or institute any other action in whatsoever form against the respondents, its agents, or privies or any other agency of Federal Government
“In relation to the facts and claims in this matter or in relation to their incarceration at the Maximum and Medium correctional center Kirikiri, Lagos State .
” That the parties have also agreed that this agreement or any part thereof shall not be varied or modified by any of the parties except with the consent of both parties and such consent is not to be unreasonably withheld.
“That in the event of a default by any of the parties, the aggrieved part shall be at liberty to commence enforcement proceedings in court against the defaulting party with respect to the term of this settlement”, he submitted
According to Bakre, after the processes were adopted and the judges signed the consent judgment, the inmates were released to the military authority on Oct. 8 for debriefing and deradicalisation.
He said that similar cases had been by undertaken the council over the years as it is currently handling several cases across various correctional facilities on behalf of inmates detained without prosecution.
(NAN)
