An assessment of documents obtained by Saturday Sun shows that a quarter of the Nigerian inmates are likely to spend not less than 50 years behind bars.
Musa Jibril
In the first week of September, the Nigerian community in Accra, capital of Ghana, was mourning the loss of one of its members who passed on the previous week. The deceased was a member of one of the Nigerian churches. He reportedly died of diabetes two months after completing a seven-year jail term.
The hard labour in prison took a toll on his health, many reasoned.
A member of the church gives Saturday Sun a rundown of the circumstances of his incarceration: He used to run an Accra-Lagos courier business. One day, a customer’s package, unknown to him, contained marijuana. Upon the discovery of the cannabinoid by security agents at the Ghana-Togo Aflao border, the driver abandoned the vehicle. The package was traced to the courier agent. He got seven years imprisonment with hard labour at the Nsawam Medium Prison.
His death brewed an intense sentiment. The grouse wasn’t so much about whether he was wrongly punished or not; it was mainly about the heft of the punishment which in popular opinion far outweighed the crime.
On the morning of September 7, 2018, a jailbird obliges Saturday Sun the chronicles of his imprisonment. The conversation takes place in the vicinity of the abandoned cinema hall at the Nkrumah Circle, an area enveloped by a flea market of phone repairers, purveyors of phone accessories and SIM cards sellers. The Nigerian had served time in Nsawam. Freed two years ago, he now ekes a living repairing faulty phones.
He grudgingly talks about the crime that got him locked away for five years. His mistake––he resents the use of the word crime––was “a kind of internet deal.” Cybercrime is a more appropriate word. He refuses to elucidate further, but readily unloads his resentment: “We were three who did the deal, two Ghanaians and myself. But my sentence was double of theirs. I wasn’t even the brain behind the operation.”
And what peeved him most: his sentence came with hard labour. “No one visited me,” he grumbles.
The parallel between the parable of the life of Chima, now deceased, and the perspectives from Oghene, adds up to a grim picture about the lot of Nigerians in Ghanaian prisons.
Ghana, a neighbouring West African country is home to a large number––if not the largest––of Nigerian prisoners serving time outside their country on the continent.
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Gloomy figures
Nigerians constitute the largest bloc of foreign prisoners in Ghana prisons. Examples: In 2014, out of 363 foreigners admitted into prisons in Ghana, 110 were Nigerians, followed by Togolese (58) and Burkinabes (62). The following year, 2015, Nigerians again topped the list with 120 of the total 356 new inmates, followed by Togolese and Burkinabes at 96 and 61 respectively.
From time to time, one hears rumbles about the dire situation of Nigerian inmates in Ghana prisons. Occasionally, a sneak preview of the prisoners’ agony surfaces online, attributed to anonymous persons who lament about undue long sentences and punitive prison condition. Though hard to verify, such news, nonetheless, is worrisome.
In 2018, an accurate picture came to light. Thanks to a galvanised Nigeria High Commission, led by Ambassador Olufemi Michael Abikoye, who had made prisoners’ concern a top priority. The resultant consular visits to prison facilities across the length and breadth of the country have been an open window that bears illuminating facts and figures.
Ghana Prisons, Nigerian prisoners
There is no mystery anymore about the numbers of Nigerians imprisoned in Ghana. The prisoners are scattered in 16 of the 43 prison facilities, across seven of Ghana’s 10 regions (states).
By April 2018, there are no fewer than 359 Nigerian prisoners in the various Ghanaian prisons serving jail terms for various offences including drug trafficking, human trafficking, armed robbery and stealing. The number has since gone up as evidenced by figures from the just concluded visits in August.
The largest concentration of Nigerian prisoners is found in the Eastern Region prisons where there are 205 inmates in Koforidua, Akuse and Nsawam. Of the three, Nsawam Medium Security Prisons had 198 (94 males and 4 females) Nigerian inmates in July.
Accra, Ghana’s capital city with a teeming population of Nigerians is a one-hour drive away from Nsawam. Proximity is one of the reasons most Nigerians convicted in Accra end up in Nsawam prison.
Three prisons in the Central Region housed 41 Nigerians. Up north, 26 Nigerians are serving jail terms in Tamale, Yendi and Salaga. While 33 are in confinement in Kumasi, Ashanti Region, 14 are incarcerated in Volta Region, in Kopado, Ho and Kete Krachi jail-houses.
Nationalisation of crime
A cross-section of Nigerians in Accra who spoke with Saturday Sun had no problem with felons being convicted for their crimes. They, however, complained of what they perceived as the discriminatory high jail terms––as high as 100 years or more, for example, for two count charges of conspiracy and robbery––consistently handed to Nigerian convicts.
“The legal system is not fair to Nigerians. How can you imprison someone for 50, 80, 120 years?” It is tantamount to a life or death sentence,” says Stanley Nwachukwu who has lived in Accra for 15 years.
Sodiq Ajenifuja, another Nigerian adds: “Robbery attracts an average of 30 years jail term, especially when the offender is Nigerian, and it is usually accompanied with hard labour.”
He says further: “While we are not in support of crime, there is hardly justification for some of the tall jail terms handed to Nigerians by Ghanaian courts.”
Stripping the issue of sentimentality, a consular source who spoke on condition of anonymity avows: “It is a legal issue, whether 150, 130, 80, 70 years prison terms.”
The real problem, he opines, is the ‘Nationalising of Crime.’
‘Nationalising of crime’ connotes a perception entrenched in the criminal justice system that prejudiced specific nationals who subsequently are at the receiving end of disproportionate penalties (jail terms) that outweigh their transgressions.
An assessment of documents obtained by Saturday Sun shows that a quarter of the Nigerian inmates are likely to spend not less than 50 years behind bars.
A random sampling of 75 inmates (from Ankaful Maximum, Nsawam Male and Tamale Male prisons) by Saturday Sun, indicates that only five have prisons terms below 10 years while 15 others are serving sentences that range from 11 to 20 years. Thirty-nine others will be behind bars for a longer spell from 25 to 50 years.
To get a good grasp of the picture is to travel westward from Accra towards Cape Coast in the Central Region to Ankaful, a town known for two things: its psychiatric hospital and its maximum security prison.
Behind the walls of Ankaful are three Nigerians serving 115, 105 and 130 years jail terms respectively.
The inmate serving 130 years with hard labour was sentenced on June 5, 2008, on a two-count charge of conspiracy to commit crime and robbery. He is due to complete his sentence on May 5, 2138––if he lives that long.
The second, found guilty of similar charges and sentenced two months later at the same court, got 105 years. He will be out in the year 2078, on September 25.
The third, incarcerated on June 5, 2006, for 115 years, was found guilty of rape in addition to the two count charges. His Earliest Projected Date of Release is also in the next century: May 5, 2121.
Still inside Ankaful is another trio who bagged 80 years each, on similar charges––conspiracy and robbery. Two were sentenced the same day, June 17, 2005, and the third, on January 29, 2010. They will be freed in 2085 and 2090.
All were sentenced at the Accra Circuit Court.
High Court of Sekondi was where a Nigerian inmate got 100 years for conspiracy and robbery. Convicted on March 19, 2008, and currently serving his term in Nsawam Male Prison, the earliest date he could be out of confinement is 2074.
Of the 75 individuals randomly sampled by Saturday Sun, only one is sentenced to death; the sentence, passed on April 6, 2017, by the High Court in Tamale where he was arraigned for murder.
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Consular efforts
Despite their bleak future, some of the prisoners found glimmers of hope in the efforts of the Nigeria High Commission.
“We visit them since we have the consular right of access to them,” a high-ranking staff of the commission told Saturday Sun.
However, the High Commission does not involve itself with legal issues, insists the source, “instead we link them (prisoners) with NGOs and legal professionals who can render needful services to see that they are fairly treated.”
Expatiating further, he says: “Some of the prisoners have the option of fine. Now, we are working it out to untangle those whose fines can be paid off. Some of them have money to fund their cases; in the past, dubious lawyers ripped them off. Now, we link them up with competent legal representatives.”
He highlights one of the commission’s giant strides. “After his first visit to Nsawam, the High Commissioner made a formal request to the authorities of Ghanaian Prison Service that the high commission is informed about the release of any Nigerian prisoner.”
Previously, once they complete their terms, the prisoners were simply disgorged into the society.
“Now, we have changed the system. Upon completion of their jail term, we arrange their passage home. Because having some of them around might put them in a difficult circumstance that could lead again to their being trapped in crimes, therefore, we assume the responsibility of chaperoning them to the park and pay their fare home to Nigeria.”
The quarterly consular prison visit has been impactful on the welfare of the inmates. The high commission embarks on such visits with food items and other needful provisions for both the jailed and their jailors.
A “Nigerian Charity Bazaar” held on September 15 by the High Commission in collaboration with the Nigeria Women Association and Nigerian Union of Traders Associations of Ghana (NUTAG) was primarily for the sole purpose of raising money for the welfare of Nigerian prisoners ahead of the last Quarter visits.
The urge to return home
Of the legions of foreign prisoners––Nigerians, Nigeriens, Togolese, Burkinabes, Beninese and Ivorians––in Nsawam Medium Prison, Nigerians were given a pass mark for good conduct by the prison director. Nigerians manned leadership positions here, he asserted. Just as well, they have demonstrated aptitude and competence in the prison’s programmes such as formal education, carpentry, weaving and tailoring.
Nonetheless, prison is no paradise––a truth that came late for the convicts and serving penitence in one’s country is preferable to languishing in a house of correction on foreign soil. This informed their fervent appeal on April 19, 2018, to High Commissioner Abikoye during his talk with the over 200 Nigerian inmates.
“We want to go home, they pleaded,” recalls another consular staff. “It was an emotional moment. The ambassador promised to handle it.” Can the diplomat really pull it off?
A ray of hope
At the 7th Ghana-Nigeria Permanent Joint Commission for Cooperation between Nigeria and Ghana, held from October 18 to 20, 2017, the two countries agreed on a draft Memorandum of Understanding to facilitate the exchange of prisoners between the two countries.
A bilateral Prisons Transfer Agreement (PTA) means prisoners are transferred to their countries to complete their jail terms after serving a stipulated fraction of the jail term––one-third or two-thirds––as agreed upon by both countries.
On this, many of the Nigerian inmates now hinge their hope.
The good news is Abikoye, who earlier in his career served at the Ghana High Commission in 1998, is versed in the prisoners transfer scheme, having steered such an undertaking in Bangkok for five years. His Thailand experience has lent impetus to the Ghana situation.
But presently, the PTA is in limbo––the draft MoU was to be studied and considered for ratification by both countries at a later date. That is yet to be done.
A High Commission source says the onus lies with ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs. “We hope the Attorney General and Solicitor General of Nigeria will fast-track the process for signing the MoU.”
Basically, how will the MoU benefit Nigerian prisoners? “Serving their sentence in their own country means their relatives could visit them from time to time,” stressed the consular staff.
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