In the third of a series of articles looking at policing in Nigeria, the BBC's Andrew Walker visits a prison in the south-eastern city of Enugu where some people who have not committed any crime are locked up for years on end:

"Welcome to the asylum!" says prison warder Iroha Uka, cracking a broad and toothy grin.

We are in a section of Enugu Prison where the state prison service keeps what it calls its "civil lunatics".

These are people who have been taken to court, either by the police or their families, and a magistrate has jailed them - indefinitely, sometimes for life.

How the hell do one jail the mentally ill in such situation without adequate care?

Usually they have committed no crime, or very minor ones that may not merit a custodial sentence anywhere else in the world.

But the colonial-era law allows Nigerian courts to jail the mentally ill.

Prisoners' Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (Prawa) is an organisation working to get "civil lunatics" released from Nigeria's jails.

They have had 54 mentally ill inmates released from Enugu Prison since 2007.

But there are still hundreds of others in already overcrowded jails all over the country

"I have a wife and three children. She is pregnant with another," he says as his eyes well up with tears.

The police - not a doctor - recommended he should be in the asylum for five months, but he is worried he will be forgotten.

"I don't know how I will get out of here."

This story makes me feel sick and just annoyed with disbelief.

In most part of the world I have visited, Police uphold the law and make sure it is enforced when necessary. However, they do not act as the Judge and Jury. How the heck do a police officer recommend putting someone in an asylum that is more or less a prison? What medical qualification or Psychiatric training do that policeman have? How do these things happen and no one makes a fuss about it?

I guess, Only in Nigeria.

Full story here.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8023067.stm

I read the article yesterday on the bbc website . I was very sad. Nigeria has degenerated to such a low level madness. The government does not care about the welfare of people.

bros nawaaoh man go die 4 dis country . may God help us ;D8)