500 Inmates in Kuje Correctional Centre Receive Legal Aid

Alex Enumah in Abuja

Over 500 pretrial detainees at the Kuje Correctional Centre have benefited from the services of the Network of University Legal Aid Institutions Nigeria (NULAI).

Senior Programme Director of NULAI, Mrs. Odinakaonye Lagi, who disclosed this yesterday in Abuja, said the gesture was part of efforts to decongest prisons in the country.

She was speaking during an event held in Abuja in honour of the group’s pro-bono lawyers who were part of the ‘Reforming Pretrial Detention in Kuje Prison Project’.

Lagi said NULAI Nigeria in collaboration with a consortium of partners and support from United States Department of State Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) launched the project.

According to her, the project was to support the Nigerian Government’s implementation of Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) and achieve a significant reduction in the size of the pre-trial detention population in Kuje Custodial Centre.

She said is a two-year project which commenced in 2018.

“Reform Kuje is a two-year project that commenced in 2018 to support the institutionalisation and operationalisation of a new Nigerian Correctional Information Management System (NCIMS) and Case Management Module (CMM).

“It is also to provide legal aid services to more than 250 detainees awaiting trial in Kuje prison per annum, and advance effective coordination, sharing of information, and documentation to enhance the NCIMS,” Lagi said.

She further stated that available data as at October 2019 for Kuje Custodial Centre recorded 1,284 inmates enrolled on the NCIMS.

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