Lawyers have expressed deep concerns over a report by an investigative panel which documented the deplorable and inhumane condition of the nation’s prison facilities. The lawyers argued that keeping inmates under such condition amounts to a breach of Section 34(1) of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to dignity of human person. TUNDE OYESINA reports
A report by an investigative panel over the deplorable and inhumane condition of the nation’s custodial centres has drew the ire of some senior lawyers.
The report highlighted overflowing sewage systems, blocked drainage, insufficient water supply, and unhygienic kitchens, painting a grim picture of conditions that experts say violate both domestic and international human rights standards.
The fact-finding panel, inaugurated earlier this year, toured several custodial centres across the country, including facilities in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Kano, and Bauchi. According to panel’s reports, “toilets in some cells were broken or completely absent, forcing inmates to use buckets for defecation.
“In certain centres, raw sewage overflowed into open courtyards where inmates spend most of their day. “Kitchen areas were infested with rodents, with insufficient ventilation and outdated cooking equipment. “Inmates complained of inadequate access to clean drinking water and soap, compounding the spread of skin diseases and diarrhoeal infections.
“Overcrowding — with some cells holding more than three times their designed capacity — exacerbated the poor sanitary conditions”, the report further highlighted. According to the panel, these failings contradict the Nigerian Correctional Service Act 2019, which mandates the Service to ensure “safe, secure, and humane” custody of inmates, and the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Mandela Rules).
Panel findings
According to the report, Kirikiri medium prison in Lagos designed for 1,700 inmates, now houses over 3,500. A recent inspection revealed that some inmates sleep in shifts due to insufficient floor space.
Toilets were reportedly functional in only 40 per cent of the cells. In the Port Harcourt maximum security prison, the report highlighted chronic water shortages with inmates sometimes going days without bathing.
Buckets were also said to have been adopted by the inmates for waste disposal, creating unbearable stench in the humid environment. At Enugu Custodial Centre, there was a report of leaking roof in the kitchen which allows rainwater to drip into cooking pots. The panel further found rodents droppings in food storage areas.
CSOs fume
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) working in the justice and human rights space have also strongly criticised the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) over what they describe as “a worsening sanitation crisis” in the country’s prisons and reform centres.
In separate submissions to the investigative panel, the groups painted a disturbing picture of life behind bars, highlighting conditions they say violate both the Nigeria Correctional Service Act 2019 and international human rights standards. “The situation is nothing short of a public health emergency.
Overcrowding, filth and lack of access to water have turned some facilities into disease breeding grounds,” one CSO representative told the panel.
According to the CSOs, many correctional centres operate far above their original capacity, forcing dozens of inmates into tiny cells with poor ventilation and little room to move. Inmates often sleep shoulderto-shoulder on bare floors, while the stench from nearby toilets permeates the air day and night.
If the state cannot keep prisoners in clean, safe conditions, it has no legal right to keep them
The groups argued that such conditions make regular cleaning almost impossible, allowing communicable diseases to spread unchecked. According to the CSOs, “toilets in several facilities are broken, blocked, or without a functioning water supply. In some centres, a single working toilet is shared by more than 30 inmates, leading to long queues and unhygienic improvisations such as the use of buckets”
The CSOs added that the absence of regular maintenance means human waste often remains unflushed for hours, sometimes days, posing severe health risks. “Many correctional centres reportedly lack constant running water, forcing inmates to either buy water from internal vendors or store stagnant water in unhygienic containers.
This not only hampers personal hygiene but also makes effective cleaning of cells and toilets almost impossible”. The groups also cited the problem of pest infestations, with rats, cockroaches, flies, and mosquitoes becoming a common part of prison life. In many centres, garbage is left to pile up in open pits close to sleeping areas.
The CSOs also complained that inmates rarely have access to disinfectants, soap, or other basic hygiene supplies, while medical responses are slow due to a shortage of drugs and healthcare personnel. Another recurring complaint is the alleged diversion of sanitation-related donations.
Cleaning materials, toiletries, and disinfectants donated by NGOs, faith-based organisations, or individuals allegedly fail to reach the inmates, with some items reportedly being sold to prisoners at inflated prices.
Correctional Act 2019
The Nigerian Correctional Service Act 2019 spells out the legal obligations of the Service regarding health and sanitation. Section 24(2) states:
“The Service shall provide every inmate with adequate accommodation, bedding, clothing, feeding, potable water, and medical treatment.” Beyond the legal infractions, experts warn that squalid prison conditions undermine rehabilitation efforts.
A criminologist, Dr. Chidi Nwosu, explained that an inmate’s physical environment plays a critical role in behavioural reform. “When you keep people in conditions worse than an animal pen, you cannot expect them to come out better citizens.
Instead, the bitterness and trauma will likely increase criminal tendencies, fuelling recidivism”, Nwosu said. He added that overcrowding, poor hygiene, and lack of access to mental health services all combine to create a “pressure cooker” environment prone to violence, disease outbreaks, and even riots.
International obligations
Nigeria is a signatory to multiple treaties, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), both of which enshrine the right to dignity and humane treatment for all persons, including those in custody.
In one of her reported statements on the issue, Dr. Funke Adekoya (SAN), said; “These obligations are not optional. When Nigeria ratifies a treaty, it assumes a legal duty to implement it domestically. Our courts have held that the African Charter has the force of law in Nigeria. The conditions described in the panel’s report are clear breaches of these international commitments”.
Lawyers speak
In the meantime, some senior lawyers have expressed deep concerns over the unhealthy state of prisons across the country. The law yers, while baring their minds on the issue at the weekend, argued that the sanitation crises constitute a breach of the extant provisions of the Correctional Service Act 2019.
Speaking on the issue, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Mike Ahamba, lamented the rots in the prison system, saying it is a pointer to the continuos disregard for law and order.
Ahamba said: “In my book, ‘Getting it right’, I have drawn attention to the fact that we don’t know who loves Nigerians between Nigerians and colonialists. We build a prison yard for 300 people and a whiteman kept only 300 people in the place, However, when a black man took over, he kept 1300 individuals there. That’s what is happening in Nigeria’s prisons.
The whiteman also said children should not be mixed with criminals. These categories of people are put in borstal homes. I wonder whether borstal homes still exists in the country?. Otherwise, why should a magistrate or judge ordered that a 12 or 13 years old should be kept in a Correctional Centre?
“It’s quite unfortunate that we are living in breach of everything in this country. If only we can follow 50 to 60 per cent of what is written in our laws, then, there will be no problem in this country. This is the main job of the Minister of Interior. That office ought to be manned by a serious lawyer for him to be able to tackle some of these challenges.”
Speaking in the same vein, another member of the Inner Bar, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, in one of his reported write-ups, described the situation as “a constitutional embarrassment” that reflects systemic neglect. “Section 34(1)(a) of the 1999 Constitution guarantees the dignity of every human person. It prohibits torture, inhuman or degrading treatment. When a prisoner is forced to sleep in filth, drink contaminated water, or defecate in open spaces, the state is in breach of this constitutional provision. It is shameful, especially when these are people awaiting trial and not yet convicted.
“The Attorney General of the Federation should liaise with state governments to ensure immediate infrastructural intervention in custodial centres”, Adegboruwa said. Speaking on the issue, a former National President of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), Malachy Ugwummadu, asked government at all levels to immediately intervene to end the menace.
Ugwummadu said: “The way forward to address the anomaly is to go back to the Nigerian Correctional Service Act 2019. By this Act, the name of our prison facilities was changed to Correctional Service. The starting point is to look at the objectives of Correctional Service as an institution and as a critical aspect of the entire gamut of the justice delivery system.
“Section 2 of the Act listed the objectives to include; (a) ensuring compliance with international best standards and good correctional practices; (b) finding enabling platforms for implementation of non-custodial services; (c) ensuring the focus on reformation, rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders and (d) establishing institutional, systemic and sustainable mechanism to address the high number of persons awaiting trial.
“If you take these objectives into consideration, you then consider what the law says with regards to borstal homes, which are the Correctional Centres. Under Section 35 (1), the Act makes it abundantly clear that young offenders shall not be kept in adult custodial facilities and vice versa. Therefore, keeping adult offenders in juvenile detention centres offends the provisions of Section 35 (1) of the Correctional Service Act.
“The whole purpose of the reforms sought through the constitutional amendment is to secure reformation, restitution and rehabilitation of persons other than punishment.. If this was the case, you could see that the Controller General of Correctional Service can make regulations and standing orders to bring about the control and effective compliance with standard practices.
“Human rights organizations like the CDHR were also permitted by the law to provide technical support to the Comptroller General. At some point, the CDHR under my leadership visited detention facilities of police and EFCC to ensure that standard detention provisions are complied with.
These things are done to guarantee the rights of Nigerians in detention facilities. “So, I think the independent investigative panel is as scandalized as every other Nigerians and to learn that the crisis is escalating calls for urgent action on the part of government. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) should not run away from this. The Legal Aid Council should also rise to the occasion”.
In his comments, a right activist, Kabir Akingbolu, also lamented the unhygienic condition of prison facilities, calling for immediate overhaul by government. He said: “Every practising lawyer knew that it is not an allegation or rumour that prisons inmates are exposed to all kinds of dehumanizing treatments.
There’s no prison in this country today that is not housing extra 60 to 70 per cent capacity of inmates. For instance, a prison originally built for 500 inmates will be housing about 3,500. The inmates living condition is so pathetic. Governments at all levels should intervene immediately. “The situation is also not different at borstal homes. In a situation where children are mixed with adults, molestation and intimidation will be the order of the day.
The prison sector needs urgent reforms. Prisons are now known as Correctional Centres, but there is nothing correctional there. People who are released from these facilities usually become more hardened in criminal activities. That is why jail breaks occurrence is persistent in the country. So, a lot is expected from government in the area of reforms to stem the ugly tide of events in the prison sector”.
In his comments, a senior lawyer, Timilehin Ojo, noted that poor sanitation in Nigerian prisons directly breaches Section 34(1) of the 1999 Constitution, which guarantees the right to dignity of the human person. Ojo said: “Forcing inmates to live in conditions that are filthy, disease-infested and dehumanising amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment.
The Constitution is clear — no one, not even a convicted criminal, should be subjected to such conditions. “Nigeria’s obligations under the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Mandela Rules) demand that every prisoner be kept in clean, sanitary conditions, with adequate water, ventilation and health care”.
In her views, another senior lawyer, Zainab Musa, said the situation indicated “gross noncompliance” with the Nigeria Correctional Service Act 2019, which specifically mandates that facilities must be maintained in a manner that safeguards health and promotes rehabilitation. “Section 10 of the Act clearly requires the Service to provide accommodation that meets minimum health and hygiene standards. If the panel’s report is correct, the NCoS is operating in contempt of its own enabling law”.
The unsanitary conditions could trigger public health emergencies extending beyond prison walls
For Ahmed Maiwada, “the unsanitary conditions could trigger public health emergencies extending beyond prison walls. Prisons are not isolated from the community.
Outbreaks of cholera, tuberculosis, or other communicable diseases can spread to prison staff, visitors, and eventually the general population. This is both a legal and medical time bomb. ‘Inmates, including thousands awaiting trial, are presumed innocent until proven guilty, and subjecting them to such unhealthy conditions is a miscarriage of justice.
“Affected inmates can through their representatives or family members, initiate fundamental rights enforcement actions in court against the NCoS and the Federal Government. Public interest litigation could be filed to compel immediate improvements”. In his submissions, a senior lawyer, Onesimus Ruya, called for immediate decongestion of overcrowded prisons through bail reforms and non-custodial sentencing. He said: “Ring-fenced budgets for sanitation, with independent audits to prevent diversion.
Mandatory quarterly inspections of prison facilities by a joint committee of the judiciary, human rights bodies, and public health officials. “Training for prison staff on sanitation management and health compliance. Prison reform is not just about building new blocks; it is about respecting the law and protecting human life.
“If the state cannot keep prisoners in clean, safe conditions, it has no moral or legal right to keep them at all”. A rights activist, Bright Enado, stated that “to curb this menace, there should be emergency sanitation task force, headed by independent experts, to audit and overhaul facilities within six months.
“There should be budget transparency. There should also be mandatory publication of prison maintenance expenditures. “Also, there should also be quarterly inspections by State Houses of Assembly and the National Assembly Committee on Interior. “Decongestion through bail reform will also reduce the population of awaiting-trial inmates, who make up over 70 per cent of the prison population”.
