Senior lawyers have asked the Federal Government to quickly obey the recent judgement of the ECOWAS Court of Justice ordering Nigeria to reduce overcrowding in correctional centres across the country.
According to them, the large number of inmates in prisons is mainly caused by delayed court cases, abuse of remand orders, poor access to lawyers and slow justice processes. They warned that if urgent reforms are not introduced, prisons may become centres that encourage crime instead of places for rehabilitation.
The ECOWAS Court recently ordered Nigeria to reduce congestion in correctional facilities by introducing policies that promote faster trials and alternatives to imprisonment for minor offences.
The judgement was delivered by a three-member panel led by Ricardo Cláudio Monteiro Gonçalves, alongside Sengu Mohamed Koroma and Edward Amoako Asante.
The court directed Nigeria to:
Carry out regular reviews of prolonged detention cases.
Introduce and implement a prison decongestion policy.
Adopt non-custodial punishments such as probation, community service and parole for minor offences.
Submit a report within six months showing progress and the number of inmates released or tried.
The case was filed by Centre for Community Law, which argued that many inmates are kept in detention for years without trial.
Using 2024 prison records, the group stated that out of 79,237 inmates nationwide:
26,718 had been convicted.
52,519 were awaiting trial.
That means nearly 66 per cent of inmates had not been convicted.
The group also argued that many detainees remained in custody for offences that could qualify for bail and that some spent longer in detention than the punishment attached to their alleged offences.
Although the Nigerian government challenged both the statistics and the organisation’s right to file the case, the court ruled that the NGO had legal standing and that the available data was credible.
The court concluded that prolonged detention and overcrowding violated rights protected under the African Charter, including:
Right to liberty
Human dignity
Fair hearing
Presumption of innocence
Trial within a reasonable time
Equal treatment before the law
Lawyers speaking on the judgement said prison congestion reflects wider failures in Nigeria’s justice system.
Public interest lawyer Dr Abdul Mahmud said prison should not be the first punishment for minor offences. He argued that non-custodial sentencing promotes fairness and respects human dignity.
Senior lawyer Emmanuel Ekwe agreed but noted that serious crimes involving violence, corruption and threats to public safety should still attract prison sentences.
Another lawyer, Dauda BaAdama, said many poor Nigerians remain in custody because they cannot afford lawyers or meet strict bail conditions.
Lawyer Onesimus Ruya added that society must change its mindset that justice only happens when people are sent to prison. According to him, alternatives like community service can still punish offenders while helping rehabilitation.
Human rights groups and institutions including Nigerian Bar Association, National Human Rights Commission, Amnesty International, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, International Committee of the Red Cross, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and Prisoners’ Rehabilitation and Welfare Action have also called for reforms to reduce overcrowding in prisons.
The lawyers said lasting change will require faster court processes, better legal aid, stronger investigations and wider use of alternatives to imprisonment.
