In a story that sounds stranger than fiction,
officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement
Administration (NDLEA) keeping watch at the
Kano International Airport, Kano, arrested a drug
trafficker who had earlier been tried and given a
jail term for drug trafficking. The man, who
should rightly have been in prison serving out
his sentence, was strangely arrested with hard
drugs at the Kano airport.


Naturally, this raised a red flag and subsequent
enquiries by NDLEA revealed that many drug
traffickers who had been given jail terms by the
courts had been surreptitiously let out of prison
illegally. The agency confirmed that at least 197
other indicted, tried, convicted and sentenced
drug barons and traffickers are now walking free
in Nigeria without serving their terms of
imprisonment.


The source of this narrative is no less a
personage than the Chairman and Chief
Executive of NDLEA itself, Mr. Ahmadu Giade,
who attributed this sordid state of affairs in the
Nigerian criminal justice system to a cartel
comprising court clerks, prison warders, drug
barons and traffickers.


This embarrassing situation is yet another
confirmation of the sorry state of the criminal
justice system in Nigeria. Mr. Giade narrated this
predicament to the press at Ibereko, Badagry,
Lagos, where he had gone to physically supervise
the destruction of confiscated illegal drugs val­
ued at N3.5 billion.


A few facts are apparent from this revelation.
First, is that our prison system is porous. If 197
convicted prisoners could be let loose at the
whims of prison warders, without a jailbreak or
prison riots, where then is the authority and
credibility of the Nigerian judicial system?
It is laughable to think that the conspiracy to
make nonsense of the prison system can be
placed at the doorsteps of prison warders and
court clerks.

The question is: what has been
done since drug convicts were discovered to
have disappeared into thin air somewhere
between the courts and the prisons? If court
clerks were involved as Mr. Giade has said, were
the chief judges of the states, the Appeal Court
president and the Chief Justice made aware of
the development?

In countries where the rule of law is taken to be
the holy grail of democracy, the Federal Attorney
General, the Interior minister and the police
chief, would have been made to provide answers
to these posers. Everyone knows how and why
there is so much money involved in the drug
trade.
Yet, even in Mexico and other South
American countries where drug cartels are so
powerful, there is no record of such massive
leakages of their prisons.



The corruption in every aspect of the Nigerian
system has been one reason why for several
years, Western countries were suspicious of the
security of Nigerian airports, and of any flights
originating from Nigeria.

And, their fears are
well-founded because a system that can let loose
drug barons and traffickers can also let loose
terrorists. If our prison is so porous to let loose
drug convicts, how are we sure that kidnappers,
child molesters, rapists and armed robbers are
not being helped to evade justice?
That this revelation has undermined the
confidence of Nigerians in the criminal justice
system cannot be in doubt. At the best of times,
such faith was tentative and shaky.

We have
heard incredible tales about our prisons being
made into a paradise for affluent felons;
prisoners being taken to night clubs so they can
enjoy themselves; criminals being allowed all
kinds of indulgences and occasional debauchery,
but none is as dangerous as the fact that
convicted felons can just be allowed to walk
away from justice.


The only measure which can restore our
confidence in the justice delivery system is a
judicial commission of inquiry to determine the
cause of this embarrassing development. It is
important to unmask the fat cats responsible for
this scandalous breach of our judicial system
and bring them to justice.


www.sunnewsonline.com/new/?p=122672

Am coming

Is dat hw tonto dikeh is still out there ryt nw?

softmind24:
Am coming

I hope you Did'nt just book space

This is indeed strange, shocking and unbelievable!

the system, the entire ball of a nation is soaking in corruption! Imagine clerks kwa!

This is very shameful and scary!

.

Good

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Corruption has eating deep into our system. GMB is got alotta work to do when he comes back from his honey moon.

this one is strong

Na today?

Not only the Nigeria justice system, all the spheres of Govt are irredeemably corrupt. You wouldn't even be wrong if you call Nigeria a failed state.

Incredible! This is not only worrisome but embarrassing. Corruption in Nigeria from top to bottom. Our image in this country has taken yet another nose-dive with this situation. Something must be done to re-establish confidence in the Nigerian judicial system and fast, or else........