Project Freedom I

“I have no one you can contact outside these walls”

This is the response my fellow attorneys and I repeatedly got while conducting pre-trial interviews at Ikoyi Prisons. We got this response upon asking interviewed in-mates if they had friends and relatives we could contact to help us more effectively address their cases and get them the justice they deserve.

Data from Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics show that Nigerian prisons hold more innocent persons than convicted persons. The report, covering data from 2011 to 2015, shows that 72.5% of Nigeria’s total prison population are inmates serving time while awaiting trial and without being sentenced. More recently, the Nigerian Prisons Service statistics show the country’s prisons held 72,277 people as of 16 April 2018. of these, only 23,048 were convicted prisoners. The remaining 49,229 – 68.1% of the prison population were awaiting trial.

You do not need a seer to reveal to you that these are trying times for Nigerians. We often hear tales of the “good times” but my generation, we millennials got to experience nothing other than decadence, corruption, fraud, poverty and failed promises, shielded from these grave realities only by whatever social currency or financial liquidity our families possess. Leaving those who have none to face squarely the consequences of the complacency, incompetence and failure that pervades our system.

Despite the mammoth challenges we face, I hope we look within ourselves and therein find the strength to make sacrifices that would position us, as the answer to someone else’s prayers, a relief to their pain

Backed by the Wells Mountain Initiative, over the course of the next few months, my colleagues, other volunteers and I would dedicate time and resources to offer free legal representation to persons remanded for months and even years without due legal process being followed.

If you feel the need to make an impact, to stand in the gap for persons who have no one. We invite you to join us – send across a PM, your time, talent and treasure are welcome, and maybe together, we can be an integral part of the change, we all so dearly desire.