A new report on state of policing has revealed the dehumanizing state of the Oyo State Police Command.
The report published by Citizens Gavel has it that while 1 of 5 people arrested by Police in Oyo state are being brutalized, over 80 percent of inmates were not treated fairly by prison wardens.
Speaking on the report, Team Lead of Citizens Gavel, Nelson Olanipekun, bemoaned the delay in arraignment of suspects by the police.
He said, “We had a productive meeting today with Prof. Oyelowo Oyewo, the new Attorney General of Oyo State, to discuss the deployment of tech to improve the efficiency in the justice sector, the issue of high percentage of the awaiting trials & non- custodial measures.
“Oyo state has one of the highest numbers of awaiting trial detainees which stands at 86 percent based on our April data survey, this is higher than the National average which stands at 69 percent.”
According to data collected from 16 LGAs in Oyo State, over 20 percent of citizens arrested by the Nigerian police are been brutalized during and before arrest.
“Over 80 percent of inmates were not treated fairly by prison wardens and this is against the conditions of detention in police custody and pre-trial detention stated in the LUANDA Guidelines Section 24.
Prison Cells in Oyo State are overcrowded. Some very small cells have over 100 detainees.
There is very poor hygiene of arrested and detained persons at police stations in Oyo State and this can lead to serious health conditions of inmates. Less than 2 percent have had their baths once in a week,” the report reads.
Even though 17 billion naira was the budget allocated for feeding of awaiting trials and convicts in the Nigeria Prisons less than 4 percent of Oyo state prisons inmates were feed twice daily in detention cells.
Despite the N366.1 billion naira police budget for 2019 less than 7 percent of arrested and detained citizens were given food once daily in Oyo State.
The Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) provision of session 34 says that Magistrates are supposed to be visiting Police stations but due to lack of proper framework to implement the provisions less than 1 percent of the inmates have been visited.
Olanipekun advised that the Justice sector should top the agenda for Seyi Makinde who just celebrated 100 days in government.
“Justice Reform that can increase the pace of justice delivery in the state” should top agenda for Makinde’s government,” he said.
