Published 3rd Sep, 2022

By Emmanuel Uti

Headfort Foundation, a prison reform organisation, has narrated how three young men spent a year and two months in Kirikiri Prison despite committing no crime.

In a Twitter thread on Friday, the foundation stated that the police in Lagos randomly arrested the trio in June 2021 and arraigned them in a Magistrate’s Court in Ogba the following month because they couldn’t perfect their bail.

According to Headfort, the trio was later remanded at the Kirikiri Medium Correctional Facility, where they remained for another year.

In June 2022, the mother of one of the three met with one of Headfort’s lawyers, who immediately started working on the case.

One year and Two months in custody for no just cause.

Sometime in June 2021, Anthony was job hunting when he was accosted by some policemen on the road and later accused of robbery. A few days later, the policemen brought in more youths including Owen and Hassan. They couldn't pic.twitter.com/hZ1qnUmKkS
— Headfort Foundation for Justice (@HeadfortF) September 2, 2022

“Our lawyer met with the defendants and discussed with them. She realised the other two could not afford to engage the services of lawyers as well, so she took their brief,” Headfort said.

“She checked the court’s record of past events and realised that since July 2021, the defendants had only been appearing in court and hopelessly awaiting trial.”

Headfort said that no one showed up as a witness against the trio, while the prosecution kept asking for more time to bring the police officers who arrested them.

“Last week, the long wait for the trial ended when the court granted the prayers of our lawyer and discharged all of them.”

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