Freed after 11yrs in prison, rejected by family

Being released from prison is expected to be a happy occasion for inmates and their family members but it in reality, it is often a period of mixed feelings, helplessness and despair for them as their problem is far from over upon release. YEJIDE GBENGA-OGUNDARE reports that this is still the case as two men released from prison in after eleven years over allegations of robbery are days later, still lost and unsure of what the future holds.

They looked hopeless, desolate and unconscious of their environment; their eyes tell a story of sadness and insecurity and the overall mien that gives the impression that they had the weight of the world on their slender shoulders and emaciated bodies.

This is the general look of 34-year-old Tope Mustapha and 35-year-old Abideen Alasela, who were on Monday, May 15 released from prison by Justice A.A. Gbolagunte of the Oyo State High Court sitting at Ring Road in Ibadan having been incarcerated as Awaiting Trial Inmates (ATM) for eleven years over allegations of stealing some mobile phones.

Theirs is a joy devoid of gladness as they can already feel that their problems are just beginning in another form and a future that is extremely bleak. For them, though life behind bars was very terrible but it had a predictable routine while their future as free men is unpredictable; no job, no hope and for Mustapha, no home or family as his grandfather, who is his only family member disowned him immediately he got home after his release.

Despite the fact that they have no criminal record, having been released without conclusion of trial, life is still a haze of pain and uncertainty. This is the plight of many inmates once they conclude their prison term.

This major challenge according to Barrister Emeka Ozoani, a constitutional lawyer, is the reason many inmates that are released from prison repeat the offences and are subsequently returned to prison; “once they cannot find it easy to reintegrate into the society, the weak ones make up their mind to go back to the life which they are now used to especially when there is no immediate family to offer support,” he said.

In Nigeria, once the release order is signed and relevant documentation fixed, inmates are released on to the streets with no one really interested in where they go or if they can even find their way home.

The first 24 hours or first few days are often the most critical and vulnerable for inmates released from prisons; they gain their freedom only to become immediately destitute as they immediately face the challenge of feeding, transportation, shelter and clothing among other core needs

This is exactly the problem faced by the duo of Mustapha and Alasela; at present, both have no job or means of sustaining themselves but Alasela has a brother who is willing to give him accommodation and emotional support while he finds his feet while Mustapha has no home or family and doesn’t even know what will become of him.

Before their release, they had gone through diverse courts for trial, starting with their arraignment at the Iyaganku magistrate court in 2006  and their matter was taken as a pro bono case by government lawyers and transferred to the high court but before their bail application was heard, the case commenced and the lawyers decided to face trial squarely. Thus began the journey of incarceration that spanned decades.

They told Sunday Tribune that there was a time that they stayed two years without coming to court for trials when the judge was transferred and there was no one to trace their case files for them and then the case file keeps getting transferred from court to court and the counsel after trying to have the case struck out since the complainant only came once without success, also stopped coming.

So it began to look like they were doomed for a lifetime behind bars until in 2010 when during one of his visits to the prison as part of his work as the director of a non-governmental body with particular focus on prison decongestion, Pastor Hezekiah Olujobi of the Centre for Justice, Mercy and Reconciliation (CJMR), got interested in their case and took steps towards getting them released.

The duo were released after CJMR had filed diverse applications including an enrolment order to the effect since the prosecution continuously failed to present witnesses against them.

CJMR, founded in 1999 is a grass root organization dedicated to protecting the basic legal rights of ordinary citizens in Nigeria through tireless pursuit of improvement in the country’s criminal justice system. It works to guarantee all citizens the right to be protected from cruel and unusual punishment, the right of inmates to fair trials, improving health and living conditions while in prison and after prison, assisting in the rehabilitation of ex-offenders through restorative process and advocate for good governance.

The vision of the organization is to rebuild broken lives and bridge the gap between the prisoner and the society for safe return and better future by being the voice of voiceless people in the rural area and inmates wrongly detained or convicted in Nigeria Prison irrespective of gender, ethnic or religion and to bid for second chance for a vile offender with the main goal of helping to break the crime circle of ex-inmates from further committing crime.

It also tries to alleviate the suffering of the innocent, decongestion of prison, impact positive values to the family of prisoners, reconcile offenders and the victim of crime and advocates for the victim of wrongful detention or conviction

Speaking with Sunday Tribune, Pastor Olujobi stated that he came across the two men in the course of his intervention programmes. “In the course of our intervention and ongoing research at Agodi Prisons on the causes of prison congestion, we came across the duo and we have been following up the case since 2010 based on the continuous claim of innocence on the alleged crime by the duo.

“We wrote letters to various courts and the Ministry of Justice to inform them the assumed true position of each case based on their stories. We do not say they are telling the truth but if there is any reasonable evidence to prosecute the case, they should commence the trial, in the absence of none they should strike out the case, he said.

After series of applications, the duo was finally released after 11 years; having been in prison custody since 2006 on a four-count charge of conspiracy and armed robbery after Justice Gbolagunte ruled that the liberty of a citizen is a fundamental human right guaranteed by the constitution and the matter had stalled with little chance of going on.

“The liberty of a citizen is guaranteed by the constitution as a fundamental right. I have done a calm review of this case file and it is apparent that the prosecution of these accused persons has stalled with slim or no chance of the prosecution getting or calling any witness to give evidence against them. The accused persons are discharged but not on the merit,” Justice Gbolagunte ruled.

Before this period, Mrs R. Yusuf, Principal State Counsel, had earlier told the court that efforts to get witnesses to testify in the matter had proved abortive and urged the court to use its discretion to decide on the case while counsel to the defendants, Mr. B. Falola and Tunde Olupona told the court that since the defendants were confined to prison custody in July 2006, the prosecution was only able to present one witness and urged the court to strike out the case for want of diligent prosecution.

The prosecutor had alleged that the defendants conspired and robbed three persons, Ayorinde Samsudeen, Kazeem Fakorede and Adebiyi Omobolanle of their properties and N72, 000 cash while armed with cutlasses and big stick and the defendants had pleaded not guilty to the charges and were remanded in prison custody since July 2006 without bail.

Another kind of prison

Though the men have regained their freedom without having a criminal record since they were not convicted, the battle is far from over. They are now facing a new form of incarceration. To get a source of livelihood is a difficult task even with a clean sheet, so finding one with a criminal record may be like finding a needle in a hay stack. This is the reality for Alasela and Mustapha now; after 11 years of being remanded in prison for robbery, they have learnt within a week that few people will look past their record of detention and give them a job. Though they continue to reiterate their innocence, people do not want to accept they have any positive side. And when a man cannot fend for himself, he may be tempted to make money anyway available, even if it is criminal.

Once they were released to Pastor Olujobi, the CJMR team drove the duo to their family homes and the reception in each home was different. Then, it dawned on them that the problem at hand was more than what they envisaged. As the needed emotional support and stable life they need to survive is not forthcoming. And they found that the biggest challenge is the lack of forgiveness and stigma.

Tope Mustapha’s house

The CJMR team had an unpleasant experience when they got to Tope’s house at Ojoo. Pastor Olujobi narrated the experience to Sunday Tribune. “When we entered the sitting room, we met some people eating, we introduced ourselves, what we do and why we were there and then introduced Tope, the woman was shocked, she called Tope more than three times with surprise and after listening to our stories; she went in to call Alhaji. At this point we had to start introductions all over and the mission of our organization and the reason of our visit; which was to take Tope back to his family for reintegration.

“It was shocking to see how the old man denied and rejected Tope like the words of Peter against Jesus, that he never knew this man in his life. Tope countered the allegation and insisted that he belongs to that family. Tope prostrated and was begging the old man for forgiveness but the old man insisted he does not know him. I turned to Tope and I asked him several questions, it was at this time I knew that the old man was actually Tope’s grandfather. The old man gave strong warning to Tope never to come to that house again and thanked us when we gave him our flyer upon his request.

Tope’s story

Having confirmed that the man is indeed Tope’s paternal grandfather, Sunday Tribune asked him what went wrong and why he was blatantly rejected. And he had a long tale which bordered on juvenile delinquency and deviant behaviours which arose from being abandoned by his parents.

Asked where his parents live, he said he doesn’t know as according to him, their father abandoned him and his four siblings with their mother in Lagos since they were little and when he was eight years old, his mother brought five of them from Lagos to dump them with their grandfather. Tope being the second child flouted all conventions and absconded from secular school and from Quaranic School to the disappointment of his grandfather.

And for no reason, ran away from home at age 12 and was living on the street, sleeping wherever he sees until he decided to do something with his life and became a driver from where he got money to secure accommodation before he had issues with his landlord and was accused of theft in July 2006.

According to him, he cannot recognise his father because he left them at an early age and now he doesn’t know where to go and is at a crossroad. Presently, he is at the CJMR halfway home which was designed to hold inmates for just 48 hours while they are reconciled with their family.

Some are lucky

CJMR has no problem with Abideen Alasela as his family were very ecstatic to have him back. He never had issues of youthful delinquency and though from a broken home, his half brothers tried their best to get him out until all their savings dwindled to nothing. So for them it was a happy time. And though faced with the challenge of stigma and moving on, he is quite happy to have a home and emotional support from his family members. His major challenge is stigma and getting a job or finances to commence aluminum trade which was his job before he was arrested.

For Philip Okonwo from Benin whose case was struck out on May 8 after eight years of awaiting trial with no witness or exhibit, he had succor in his wife, a nursery school teacher who in his absence did her best to raise their two small children. He found a ready home in his wife after being given transport by CJMR. But he like others have the challenge of getting a job and now he is trying to acquire a driver’s license so he can take up a driving job.

Also not so lucky is Emmanuel Isaac, now back in Lagos whose case was also struck out after four years in detention, his wife had abandoned him for another man and dropped his two children for her mother. Though his sister gave him a warm reception, she couldn’t accommodate him.

Another person in the same boat is Monday Stanley Peter who also needs a driving license and accommodation to start his life among many others whose life had been put on hold as a result of cases that refused to go on before the courts for diverse reasons.

We are innocent

Tope and Abideen in a chat with Sunday Tribune insist that they know nothing of the crime that took them to prison. According to the duo, the genesis of their crisis was when they had a fight with their landlord.

“We were living fine as co-tenants, we were not really friends but we greet each other because we live in the same compound. What brought us together was when we were arrested on allegation of stealing handsets. This happened after our landlord told us he wanted to use our rooms because his child was coming from another state and would need accomodation in Ibadan, we told him that it was unfair that he allowed us spend so much money to renovate the house only to now tell us to vacate.

“We told him we wouldn’t leave and he didn’t take it lightly. The result was the allegation that we stole handsets. The complainant that appeared in court only once was a stranger, we never saw before that day and since nobody came for the case again. We are not thieves, they only wasted a decade of our lives for selfish reasons.” they said.

Pastor Hezekiah Olujobi said if someone has been locked up for eight or 11 years without any substantial evidence to convict him, it is unfair to just throw such a person back to the society without any concern on how such people could start a new life. “It is dangerous to the society,” he said emphasizing the need to consider plan for safety re-entry of the inmates into the society.

“We have a Halfway-Home with over 200 ex-inmates beneficiaries. The doors of the home are open to all newly discharged inmates, Christian or non Christian. We seek to collaborate with relevant stakeholders in criminal justice, Human rights, civic societies and NGOs; national and international. We have been facing some issues and we call on government and other well meaning people to collaborate with us so that these people will not be enticed into crime when they have no way of coping in the outside world.

“I also want to urge people to show this people love. They should be given a second chance to prove themselves. We should not forget that there are innocent people among them that were just unfortunate to be roped into cases due to shoddy investigations,” he concluded.

Barrister Ozoani on his part expressed the view that stable employment and an atmosphere of forgiveness devoid of stigma will help freed inmates to successfully transit to a good life outside the bars

Getting freedom from jail seems the beginning of a new challenge for inmates who might despite the terrible situation in prison find life outside more difficult and more unacceptable.

“And if the society wants to reduce the high risk of freed inmates committing new crimes and ending back in jail, it should put a framework of successful transition and rehabilitation in place since the crimes they commit affects others in the society,” Ozoani said.

Stanley Monday’s case is a lot much better than the previous two, though he served about four years in prison without trial. A native of Imo State, Stanley came to Ibadan in August 2014 to sell some goods. It was an ill-fated journey that he would live to remember for a long time to come.

“On that day, I went to Ojoo area to collect money from one of my customers. So, when I was coming from the place, I was attacked by some hoodlums, who collected all my money and pushed me down from the Ojoo Bridge and I fell on my back. It was around 7:00 p.m and I was there till the next day because there was nobody to rescue me.

“In the morning, I called out to passersby, who rescued me and took me to the hospital. When I got to the hospital, I got to know that I would not be able to walk for the next six months. After spending a month at the clinic, I told them I could not bear the bill again staying in the hospital, so I told them I would be coming from home to receive treatment,” Stanley told Sunday Tribune.

At that time, he had a brother in Ibadan, who often hosted him anytime he was around so he stayed with him until his condition improved. As if fate had a cruel surprise in store for him, his hope of getting well on time and going back to his family was truncated with another incident.

“On this fateful day, I went to the hospital to collect my x-ray, after which I proceeded to my house. I boarded a bike to take me to my house but along the road, we came across a police check point. The policemen asked the motorcyclist to present the receipt of the motorcycle, which he did. But they insisted that he should bring other documents, but the man said he had just bought the motorcycle and was not in possession of any new documents.

“All our pleas did not make any sense to them as they insisted that we must follow them to their station. I told them I was just a passenger and that I was not feeling fine. I even told them that I was just coming from the hospital where I had gone to collect X-ray film of my injury. I even showed them my hospital card and other things. They refused to listen. So, I followed them to the station and they started asking us for money to bail ourselves,” Stanley alleged.

Speaking further he said: “After about an hour that I didn’t raise the money they requested of me, they called the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), telling them that we were suspected criminals. The SARS operatives did not even ask us any question; they just took us down to the cell without questioning. The next day, they started asking us questions again, and I told them that I knew nothing about what they were accusing me of.

“They threw us back inside the cell and I was there for one month without calling anybody. After about a month in the cell, they asked me who I was staying with anytime I came to Ibadan, I took them to my uncle’s house, when they got there, and they arrested him and brought him into the police station. After about few days, my uncle was asked to bail himself and he paid N100,000 naira before he could be released.

“My family later paid N50,000 naira to the SARS operative for my bail but they didn’t release me. When my family members came back to ask them why I was yet to be released, they threatened to arrest them. So, they stopped coming to ask after me. After some weeks, I was charged to court and from there; I was remanded at Agodi prison for three years. From the prison, they would take me to Magistrate Court 5 at Iyaganku. The Magistrate was a woman but after sometime, she was replaced with a man.”

How he was released

Despite Stanley’s lawyer’s intervention, his case was adjourned several times.  One day, the magistrate asked the prosecutor about his file and he told the court that the IPO handling the case had died and despite trying to trace his case file, but he couldn’t get it. After that day, the case was adjourned and on resumption, the magistrate said he could not release him because an order came that only the High Court had the power to do so.

The magistrate told Stanley’s lawyer to file for fundamental human right to the High Court. After doing so, the court to invited the DPP to come and explain why he was still being remanded. The DPP said he didn’t know how Stanley was remanded, adding that the case was between the Commissioner of Police and him (Stanley).

Subsequently, Stanley’ lawyer was asked to write to the Commissioner of Police and OC SARS to come and appear in court but they never showed up for more than three times that the court asked for their presence. The magistrate was angry that the Police Commissioner and others didn’t show up in court the third time. So, the case was adjourned till 10th April, 2017.

At the end of the day the Commissioner of Police and the OC SARS were served and Stanley was granted bail. Thus started the process of Stanley’s final release, ending a journey of almost four years behind bars for a crime he did not commit.