Headfort Foundation provides free legal services for persons awaiting trails in some of the correctional centres in the country has successfully secured the release of 244 inmates.
Former Chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association, Ikeja Branch, Mr. Adesina Ademola Ogunlana, has described Nigeria as a jungle where powerful politicans and those in power are always right before the law.
Ogunlana who lamented that Nigeria is an unjust country where the poor is always wrong, decried the situation might not change anytime soon while noting that the country will need revolution to revive.
Ogunlana stated this while delivering a keynote speech on ‘Reality of Access to Justice in Nigeria’ at the third anniversary of Headfort Foundation in Lagos.
Headfort Foundation, a non governmental organisation offering free legal services for persons awaiting trails in some of the correctional centres in the country has successfully secured the release of 244 inmates awaiting trials at correctional centres in Lagos.
The foundation has received international recognition with its activities reported by international media organization like BBC and Aljazeera and its founder, Mrs Oluyemi Orija, named in BBC 100 most influential women of 2021.
While Ogunlana commended Headfort Foundation for working on prison reforms, he posited that fierce actions needed to be taken if the justice system in Nigeria would change and that the rule of law is binding on everyone, regardless of position or power.
He said, “The prison yards are in nonsense, the courts are nonsense, the police system are nonsense, the DPP of justice is nonsense.
“Those of us who are lawyers, practicing lawyers know, Nigeria has become a semi-jungle. When you get judgment or injunction in Nigeria, if you don’t back it up, you have just obtained judgment in vain.
Simply, Nigeria is a country of might is right, it is a jungle and you know it. When you are in a country where might is right, you are not living in a society, you are living in a jungle.”
While launching My Rights My Freedom project, Mrs. Oluyemi Orija, founder of Headfort foundation explained that the project seeks to enlighten members of the public about their rights as a way of ensuring their freedom.
The project will publish a book that contains the Fundamental Human Rights of Nigerian citizens as enshrined in the 1999 constitution as amended that will be used to enlighten Nigerians about how to defend and exercise their rights.
Orija said, “many citizens have been in prison because they do not understand English language, but with this project, we will be sensitizing members of the public about their rights in local languages.
“Thus, no one would be denied access to justice on the basis of ignorance, language barrier or lack of legal representation,” she added.
Orija also urged the government to address the issue of congestion in the correctional centres across the country and also make available adequate rehabilitation programmes for inmates.
She said: "I go to prison often and we have a collaboration with the prison system, and with my experience I know that rehabilitations are going on especially in the female centers and it is possible there because it is not particularly congested, but for our male centers unfortunately I won't say so much is being done and this is the reason - how do you rehabilitate 3,000 inmates in a 800 capacity with less than a 100 officials.
“What kind of rehabilitation do you want to do? It's tough, it's hard, and my expectations from the government is that more is done and the government cannot do it alone and that's why we have NGOs, they can collaborate with the government to ensure rehabilitation."