Chioma Onwuniko was in the first trimester of her pregnancy when a woman—who was a frequent customer at her market stall—tricked her into aiding in a trafficking scheme in return for child care, baby care kits, medical care, and a place to stay. Once Onwuniko realized what was happening, she made sure the intended victim, a 6-year-old child, was returned safely to his parents. Nonetheless, in March 2013, she was arrested by the Nigerian police for trafficking.
Onwuniko was initially held at the Ndiabor Police Station in the Aninri district of Enugu, a state located inland in the southeastern part of Nigeria. She was there for three days, even though it is unlawful, according to Section 35 of the Nigerian Constitution, for the police to detain a suspect for more than 48 hours. After her unlawful detention, she was transferred to the Magistrate Court in Enugu for prosecution.
What followed, she says, was the “worst story of my life.” She was charged in court with trafficking.
When Onwuniko’s trial began, she couldn’t afford an attorney to represent her in court. She underwent an eight-month trial. When lawyers from the Catholic Institute for Development, Justice, and Peace (CIDJAP) offered to represent her, it was already too late: she pleaded guilty at her last trial, and she was sentenced to five years in prison.
According to Nigeria’s Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Law Enforcement and Administration Act, which established the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP), a special task force combating human trafficking, the offense results in jail terms ranging from 12 months to life imprisonment. Onwuniko’s sentence was longer due in large part to the fact that she lacked representation.
“The day judgment was pronounced, the magistrate told CIDJAP that I wouldn’t have been sentenced to this length of imprisonment if I had a lawyer to stand for me, because he saw elements of truth in all that I told the court,” Onwuniko says.
CIDJAP is one of the faith-driven nonprofits dedicated to accelerating the pace of justice in Nigeria. Through advocacy and activism, dedicated individuals are seeking to reform the notoriously corrupt, slow, and violent judicial system, and aid those incarcerated in Nigeria’s prisons.
The slow wheel of justice
A 2019 survey released by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) found Nigeria’s police department to be the most corrupt public institution in Nigeria, closely followed by the judiciary. According to the survey, a “bribe is paid in 54 percent of interactions with the police. In fact, there is a 63 percent probability that an average Nigerian would be asked to pay a bribe each time he or she interacted with the police.” That means almost 2 out of every 3 people who interact with police will pay a bribe.
Because of this corruption, many of the people currently incarcerated in Nigeria have not been convicted of any crimes at all. In fact, 2015 data from Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) suggests Nigeria’s prisons may hold more innocent people than guilty criminals. The report, covering NBS data from 2011 to 2015, suggests that 72.5 percent of Nigeria’s total prison population are inmates serving time while awaiting trial who have not received a sentence. Another report, this one in 2020 by the Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research (ICPR), found that Nigeria has the second highest number of pre-trial and remand imprisonment in West Africa, followed only by the Republic of Benin.
As of January 2024, the trial backlog for detainees in Nigeria remains alarming. There are currently 77,350 inmates throughout the country, 54,092 of whom are still awaiting trial. In other words, 7 of 10 inmates have not been convicted of a crime.
The government has shown no movement toward rectifying this situation, despite a law passed in 2015: the Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL). The ACJL aims to expedite trials and more efficiently manage the criminal justice system in the country.
Nelson Olanipekun, a lawyer, says the fate of inmates awaiting trial in Nigeria is terrible. “The situation is such a terrible one that is in dire need of change; inmates wait a long time before they have their day in court,” he says. “The Nigerian justice delivery system is painstakingly slow. Before people are arraigned, it takes a while before their files are moved from the police to the prosecutor’s office and eventually to court. Sometimes, you see people get stuck in that process for years.”
Olanipekun says that the dispensation of justice in Nigeria is so delayed that simple cases regarding the termination of contracts or fundamental human rights last between three to five years or more.
“Once you get arrested and you’re processed through the criminal justice system, the injustice commences,” he says. “The system holds you back from doing a lot of things. If you unfortunately get detained, that means you don’t know how soon you can get released.”
Unsafe conditions in Nigeria’s prisons
The pace of the criminal justice system isn’t the only issue at stake when it comes to reforming Nigeria’s prison system.
In April 2024, 119 inmates escaped from Suleja Prison near Nigeria’s capital after the perimeter fence of the jail caved in due to heavy rain. And this isn’t the only instance: There were about 15 jailbreaks between September 2015 and July 2022, with more than 7,000 people escaping.
Overcrowding, dilapidated facilities, and insufficient guards create the conditions for these jailbreaks. For example, Suleja Prison was built to hold 250 inmates, but the facility currently houses 499 people. The prison lacks basic amenities such as physical infrastructure and housing facilities. Most of the rooms and cells are not fit for human habitation, and, in many cases, inmates routinely sleep on the bare floor due to a lack of proper bedding.
Kelechi Agu, a prison welfare officer at CIDJAP, says this isn’t a rare situation. The correctional facilities where inmates are held are overcrowded and in a deplorable state. For many years, human rights organizations have advocated against dilapidated prison buildings and filthy overcrowded cells.
According to Penal Reform, an organization promoting criminal justice reform worldwide, overcrowding is one of the key contributing factors to poor prison conditions around the world. Its consequences can be life-threatening and prevent prisons from fulfilling their proper functions.
A 2024 report from the U.S. Department of State, “2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Nigeria,” spotlights Nigerian prisons’ poor conditions. According to the report, the detention centers’ conditions are severe and life-threatening due to extreme overcrowding, inadequate medical care, and shortages of food and water, which sometimes result in dangerous and unsanitary conditions.
“Disease was pervasive in cramped, poorly ventilated prison facilities, which had chronic shortages of medical supplies. Inadequate medical treatment caused some prisoners to die from treatable illnesses, such as HIV and AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis,” the report states.
There are also widely reported cases of skin diseases, including rashes, ringworm, herpes, and scabies, in many prisons across the country.
Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy Sister Chioma Onyenufoh, who leads CIDJAP’s welfare unit, says that most of the prison facilities where her organization works had a serious infestation of scabies last year.
“Scabies is a contagious condition that causes itching and rash; it is caused by mites that burrow into the top layer of the skin and are spread by direct skin-to-skin contact, particularly in crowded conditions such as prisons where close body and skin contact is frequent,” she says.
While CIDJAP bought drugs and treated many of the affected people, Onyenufoh says other pests are also common, including rodents, insects, and bedbugs. “People often find it difficult to keep their environment clean due to overcrowding,” she says.
Overcrowding and unsanitary conditions are also an issue of gender inequality. According to World Prison Brief, Nigeria has 240 prison facilities as of 2021. However, only two of these facilities are dedicated to women: Kirikiri Female Prison in Lagos and Numan Old Prison in Adamawa. These two facilities can become even more overcrowded than other prisons, raising concerns about privacy, security, and gender-specific health care needs. It also leaves women vulnerable to sexual violence, including rape.
Grassroots efforts to reform Nigeria’s prisons and justice system
Grassroots initiatives are trying to address both the backlog of criminal cases and conditions in Nigeria’s prisons. CIDJAP offers pro bono representation to incarcerated individuals and those who are standing trial. Established in 1986 by Monsignor Obiora Ike and supported by the Enugu Diocese, the institute has been steadfast in its advocacy for justice, human rights, and peace within Nigerian communities.
“We operate based on referrals from parishes, especially those that we’ve offered pro bono services to. We have lawyers who go inside the prisons and get the names of those who need urgent legal assistance, because most of them may not be able to reach us,” Benedict Anekwe, head of chambers at CIDJAP, says. “They gather this information for us; we then go to the prison to interview the inmates. This enables us to know some of the inmates who need our service.”
Anekwe says that judges, law officers with the Ministry of Justice, and court clerks also refer cases to the group due to the kind of services it offers to indigent individuals, especially people who are innocent of the crimes they’ve been accused of or those who are unable to afford a lawyer.
The legal process starts with the team visiting the prison to assess someone’s case. “We submit a motion, obtain their name and charge sheet, and then go to the court that remanded them to obtain a record of proceedings.” says Patricia Egbuna, director of legal services at CIDJAP.
Other staff members take care of people’s other needs apart from their legal cases. “We take care of inmates’ welfare,” Onyenufoh says. “We engage with the inmates to understand their needs and ensure we take the necessary actions based on their feedback.” She says her department also closely collaborates with the legal department to ensure that both the legal and welfare needs of the inmates are met.
The organization also includes a human rights department that attends to inmates who have had their cases and trials delayed in courts. Another unit, the sponsorship desk, takes care of the education of those in need. One of these educational initiatives is the vocational technical training center, Olu-Aka Di Mma, which focuses on youth development and training. The goal is to help inmates become self-reliant upon their release and create job opportunities for others.
In addition, CIDJAP provides scholarships to children from underprivileged communities, beginning from preschool and going through elementary school to college and beyond. “We have about 1,000 children on scholarship. Some are supported up to university or polytechnic level, while others stop at the college level if they choose not to continue,” says Onyenufoh.
CIDJAP also provides primary health care and hospital services to families that cannot afford health care bills. “One of our core visions and mission statements is to support the underprivileged and contribute to community development.
We provide subsidized and quality health care services with experienced doctors and nurses to those who need them, those who are suffering from different health challenges,” says Ikenna David, one of the lawyers at CIDJAP.
The nonprofit also strives to meet inmates’ spiritual needs by working with prison chaplaincies to provide Mass, reconciliation, and communion, particularly to those inmates who are unwell, confined to their cells, or otherwise unable to attend church. The organization’s work is supported by various international donors, including Missio, the church’s official charity for overseas missions, and Misereor, the international development agency of the German Catholic bishops. Onwuniko was one of the people who attended catechism classes and received communion for the first time during her incarceration.
A focus on rehabilitation
By law, Nigeria’s prisons are responsible for the rehabilitation of inmates. But Ogechi Ogu, former deputy director of Prisoners Rehabilitation & Welfare Action, a nongovernmental organization promoting security, justice, and development in Africa, says that the criminal justice system is failing to fulfill its intended role. And this failure isn’t particular to Nigeria.
“All over the world, prisons, or custodial centers as we call them today, are like warehouses holding people that are said to be criminals and turning them back into society even worse than they were,” he says.
There have been some attempts to remedy this. In August 2019, Muhammadu Buhari, then Nigeria’s president, reformed the Nigerian Prisons Service, an agency that operates prisons, and signed the Nigerian Correctional Service Act into law. As part of this reform, incarcerated individuals are supposed to receive educational and vocational training while in correctional centers.
“So much progress has been made in that law,” Olanipekun, the lawyer, says. “There are provisions for community service and other noncustodial measures. First-time offenders whose crimes are simple offenses don’t have to be detained in prison. They can get community service, and this will reduce the number of persons in incarceration.”
However, implementation remains slow due to government funding shortfalls. In April 2024, Idris Okuneye, a controversial celebrity also known as Bobrisky, was arrested in a crackdown on currency abuse. He was subsequently sentenced to six months imprisonment without the option of a fine.
Olanipekun is contesting this sentence, saying that financial abuse is a simple offense that community service will take care of. However, he says, “the discretion of the judge also comes into play in instances like this. What this means is that the judge can decide to explore the maximum sentencing.”
While CIDJAP focuses on rehabilitation, it is also trying to limit the amount of time people spend in prison. In addition to their other advocacy work and care for prisoners, between November 2018 and October 2024, CIDJAP secured bail for 1,047 inmates across Nigeria. The organization also successfully litigated 1,991 cases on behalf of indigent individuals and is currently working to secure the release of at least 1,000 inmates from various prisons across Nigeria.
Egbuna says this progress represents a significant stride toward the institute’s main objective of ensuring fair and prompt delivery of justice.
After people are released from prison, CIDJAP assists them in reconnecting with their families, particularly those who have served long prison sentences and have lost contact with their relatives.
Agu says her welfare team drives to visit people’s local community chiefs, family members, and neighbors. They advocate for released individuals’ acceptance. After reconciling them with their families, CIDJAP helps them start a small business to ensure their continued employment and their ability to cover living expenses.
“We do this to reduce the level of stigma that they are likely going to have to deal with. It will also help their family members and everyone concerned to understand that they are now reformed members of society,” she says.
While Catholics are used to thinking about the sacramental life of the church as offering individuals a chance at a new life with God, CIDJAP’s work in aid of the incarcerated integrates the spiritual reality of redemption with material, measurable outcomes in people’s lives and relationships. For many incarcerated individuals, Agu says, the opportunity to receive communion marks the beginning of a fresh relationship with God.
“Celebrating communion is not just about performing a ritual; it’s about actively listening to Christ and following his guidance,” she says. “He was broken for us so his body and blood can fix us. This will help us bring [incarcerated people] closer to Christ and give them a new start.”
This article also appears in the February 2025 issue of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 90, No. 2, pages 31-35). Click here to subscribe to the magazine.
Image: Courtesy of Valentine Benjamin
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