Over 300 Awaiting Trial Inmates Languish In Kano Prison Without Proper Documentation

By Abdullahi Yusuf

The Kano State Police Duty Solicitors Scheme (PDSS) Advisory Committee has uncovered over 300 Awaiting Trial Inmates Languishing In Kurmawa Custodial Center, Kano, without proper documentation of their cases.

The committee made the discovery in continuation of its unscheduled visits to Prisons, Police formations, Juvenile Houses on Wednesday.

The body is headed by the Kano State Commissioner of Police, Muhammad Hussaini Gumel, and is said to be investigating cases of Human Rights violations of People with Criminal and Civil Cases.

Addressing newsmen shortly after the visit, Gumel said the major reason of setting up the committee was to get to the roots of cases of human rights violation, document them and forward them to the relevant authourities for appropriate action.

Presenting some sets of inmates whom are awaiting trial for years at Kurmawa Custodial Center, an Officer in the Prison yard, revealed that most of them have no Case Diary or even any criminal records before the Prison.

He said, some have no specific Courts they would be charged to, and their cases have no records in the Prison but have been there for many years.

Others uncovered languishing in the Prison without trial are those who lacked Legal Representation at the Court and, as such, they don’t go any to Court, at all, the officer said.

An inmate, Ibrahim Dala, said he is facing culpable homicide charges, but that since 2009, he had been in the prison and that nobody is talking to him or taking him to Court.

Yahya Usman is another inmate who said he was in Court only in 2017 and that since then, nobody toot him back to Court, adding that right now he doesn’t know his fate.

The commissioner said the committee would present its report immediately after it finished investigating and conducting their assignments, assuring that those affected would get justice.