United Kingdom is finalizing plans that would see the Country build a £700,000 (N315 Million) United Nations specification prison, at the Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison in Lagos. But 4 days after the Memo, which says it has gone as far as placing tenders and getting a supplier to conduct the building work, is released, the Nigerian government has not been informed neither does the Nigerian Senate support the “agreement” the UK is relying on.
According to UK Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Boris Johnson in a Statement to the Parliament, the proposed 112-bed wing project is part of a compulsory prisoner transfer agreement which both countries signed in 2014.
“As part of this agreement, eligible prisoners serving criminal sentences in Nigeria and the UK can be returned to complete their sentences in their respective Countries.”
Johnson said poor conditions in some Prisons overseas have created a legal barrier to returning foreigners convicted in the UK.
The project, he says, will be funded from Britain’s Conflict, Stability and Security Fund, which has an annual budget of more than 1 billion pounds and aims to commission projects that can help prevent conflicts and stabilize countries or regions.
The deal will see eligible Prisoners serving criminal sentences in Nigeria and the UK, returned to complete their sentences in their respective Countries.
“The Government believes that wherever possible foreign nationals should serve their sentences in their own country,” a Foreign Office spokesperson said.
“Helping Nigeria to improve its prison conditions and increase prison capacity will enable us to transfer more prisoners to Nigeria, which will in turn free up prison places in the UK.”
Deals to transfer prisoners in UK jails to their countries of origin have also been made with Albania, Rwanda, Jamaica, and Libya.
But the Nigerian Prison Service has come out to say the plan to build facility at the Kirikiri prison is unknown to it and unknown to the Nigerian government.
“No such building can be built without a synergy between the UK and the Nigerian government; the UK cannot do that. There is no way the UK can just jump into Kirikiri and start to build anything. Officially, we are not aware of such move. No formal document has reached the service. As far as I know, I have not seen any document showing a formal move by the United Kingdom to build a prison wing in Kirikiri.” NPS Spokesman, Francis Enobore says.
A disrespectful twist
Senate Vice President Ike Ekweremadu had alleged in January that the agreement signed with the UK on the 9th of January 2014 does not say the prisoner has no right to consent to the transfer but a UK Memo, obtained by ETN24, explaining the agreement says the prisoner does not have to give consent (download HERE). Even at that, it says the transfering and receiving staes must give consent, yet while the Senate was asking its Judiciary, Human Rights and Foreign Affairs Committee to look into the agreement in, the UK went ahead with its own implementation of what they call an agreement.
“The issue of consent of the prisoner is akin to the fundamental human rights as provided by the constitution, therefore where a prisoner’s right to consent is taken away, as is the nature of this agreement, the agreement is said to have violated the basic tenets of fundamental human rights,” Ekweremadu argued in 2017
Thailand has also treated Nigeria in the same manner. Throwing Nigerian prisoners at the country.
Nigerians in Foreign Prisons
It is a myth that the UK prison is populated with Africans and Nigerians.
At the end of 2016, there were just fewer than 10,000 foreign nationals within the UK prison population, 19% of which were from African Countries.
Statistics from the Ministry of Justice also revealed there were 750 Nigerian Prisoners in British jails at the end of 2017.
Latest statistics revealed about 170,000 Nigerian citizens are in jails all over the world. Most of them are serving for drug trafficking, human trafficking, and immigration-related offenses.
Patriotic Citizens Initiative, PCI, a civil society group, mid-last year raised an alarm over the ordeal of Nigerians in jails overseas. The group charged the Federal Government to investigate allegations of mysterious deaths and “organ harvesting” of Nigerians in Chinese prisons, where about 8,000 were incarcerated for drug trafficking, immigration, smuggling and other offenses. The majority were victims of shoddy investigation and alleged trumped-up charges. About 40 Nigerians are executed, especially in Asia, annually.
While there is high percentage of Nigerians in foreign Prisons, that cannot be said regarding foreigners in Nigeria Prisons.
There is no official data that gives the number of foreigners in the Country’s Prisons, but there have been series of arrest involving foreign Nationals.
In December 2016, a mysterious white man was captured by the Nigeria Military, when they stormed Sambisa Forest in the fight against the insurgent Boko Haram.
The man was reported to be French and working as the insurgent specialist in repairing and unlocking armored personnel vehicles and other fighting equipment.
His detail was shredded in secrecy by the Federal Government and nothing was heard about him after the arrest.
