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00:00Imagine this, one moment you are going through life hustling for your daily bread, then suddenly
00:20you are rested while walking, walking and breathing. No explanation, no mercy. This
00:29is the story of Bashir and Isaac who were forgotten behind bars for over four years allegedly for a
00:37crime they didn't commit. It began for them in late 2020 they were allegedly arrested without warning
00:46and taken to police station before being transferred to criminal investigative department
00:52in Yaba and according to the victims for two months they waited detained without a fair hearing.
01:00They said they were left without answers before they were sent to Kirikiri prison.
01:06They arrested me, so I go to Kirikiri prison and I won't prison. The advanced people
01:20were in prison since 2020.
01:22Why were you arrested? Is it in your house, in the streets of the river?
01:28Is it in your house or in the house where you were arrested?
01:36Most of them were arrested. Most of them were arrested. Most of them were arrested.
01:46Most of them were arrested. Most of them were arrested to court and then did that case.
01:50Before one person Ira a drug? Is it in your house?
01:54You're the only one that was arrested at the past half point, now it's only you.
01:59The number of you in the church together is this one.
02:04How do you make this one? You're going to report in the station, in general, in the station.
02:12How old were you when you were arrested?
02:14I'm 23 years old. Almost 23.
02:20What were you doing before you were arrested?
02:23I have an adult. I let me play a lot of rules.
02:27I knew yes, I'm going to do it.
02:29But I've already got permission from my uncle.
02:32They don't look for money for freedom.
02:35But, by the way, I will drive Morua.
02:39I use Morua to move on.
02:42We've been living in Saudi Arabia.
02:46So, where were you arrested?
02:48I was arrested at Abanava, before AIT Road, at Polarabad.
02:55Which days?
02:57December 3, 2020.
03:00What was your first thing alleged to you?
03:06They say they have keys on along the road.
03:12Because, on our way coming, around, maybe, after five.
03:17Maybe?
03:18In the morning.
03:19Any morning morning?
03:20Yes.
03:21Or 5,000.
03:22Because, there is one feeling station at Bakare.
03:28That we always park our Morua at night.
03:31But, around five.
03:33I always wake up every day.
03:35I'm going to park the Morua at night.
03:37But, that very day.
03:38I don't see any traffic to take me to that park area.
03:47And, I said I should be losing leg and going small, small.
03:52So, I see any traffic that will carry me to that place.
03:58But, on my way going in here, they just park on my side.
04:02I don't even know where I am going.
04:03In here, I will hold me.
04:04Before I know, they don't visit me.
04:06I don't.
04:07I see, maybe, the people inside, they want to get the cashmere codes.
04:13Because, when we leave station.
04:15They don't ask me anything.
04:16They don't talk anything.
04:17They don't come open me.
04:19They come open people where they cash me.
04:21Where I meet inside, they want to.
04:23They open them.
04:25I don't see them again in here.
04:27They say, what do you say?
04:28They're free to them.
04:29They're all open them.
04:30They don't like them again.
04:31I don't know where they are going.
04:33So, I don't know where they are going again.
04:36The time that they're open.
04:38They say, you are dead.
04:40Why are you poor?
04:41That's why.
04:42I said, I don't get this.
04:43I get my man.
04:44He said, I don't have one.
04:46I'm ready to talk to my mother.
04:51I don't know.
04:52I see.
04:53can't even say i'm not doing anything
05:07because they want to follow people talk first so only they see people so they will follow them
05:15talk about could you write any statements about my life statements about this statement that i
05:21write they don't forget them now like four books they just write my statement when you ask to write
05:28it on your own they will get it with just official when you're asking questions and they're writing
05:35for you they ask you to write it no they're asking any question am i saying them they are writing for
05:43you victims explained what life looks like in the prison from the mode of feeding to the sleeping
05:50conditions
05:55because you know
05:57So you don't worry, it's very up to you.
06:12Yes, it's a lot.
06:14It's a lot.
06:19Is it like a bag? They bring back a bag of things?
06:35Yes.
06:36Is that a big purse?
06:37There's no one bag that they cook it. They cook plenty but instead of them to make
06:44it, we open this every time and we know. They will just burn the fire directly.
06:52They will give us to burn. We start things for that time.
06:57But we should not sustain it.
07:01The Nigerian Correctional Service, once known as the Nigerian Prison Service,
07:06was born from colonial roots before it transitioned into Nigeria's legal framework.
07:13Under the 1999 Constitution, Section 35 guarantees the right to personal liberty,
07:20and Section 36 ensures a fair erring within a reasonable time.
07:27The Nigerian Correctional Service Act of 2019, signed into law by the then President,
07:34Muhammad Obwari promised reform, dividing the service into custodial and non-custodial harms,
07:43emphasizing rehabilitation over punishment.
07:49Vocational training programs exist designed to equip inmates with skills for life after prison.
07:57But these provisions rooted in the law, however, seems they are overshadowed by a darker reality,
08:05such as overcrowding, neglect, and a system that allegedly forgets the wrongly accused.
08:14For these individuals arrested in 2020, freedom came not from the system, but from the tireless work of an NGO called
08:24I Am That I Am Foundation, led by Director John Emeka, with legal counsel Uzube Godwin by their side.
08:32They fought for justice, and on a fateful day at Ikeja High Court, Justice Ollatunde Oshodi delivered a verdict that set them free.
08:42In what was a moment of joy for the victims?
08:46Crime cases that have been unresolved for some years, and through that we've been able to release some people through the court processes,
08:59because we realized that some of them are cases that are without case file,
09:04and then some of their cases have been long forgotten, and they've been in the prison for some years,
09:12and nobody's checking out. In fact, there was a case where we had to reach out, and the person said,
09:17my family stopped coming five years ago, and nobody is out there for me, so we decided to take up the case.
09:26And then, to the glory of God, we've been able to see to the end of some cases.
09:33We've been able to bring out about five or six people out.
09:38These are, these are making it about eight, the eight set of people that we've been able to get a grant, get paid for.
09:46Advocates are requesting that the federal government look into the situation.
09:51When we talk about the criminal justice system, I would say the trinity, that is the courts, the police, and the prison authorities.
09:59In this, these three arms, they have to work together. They have to work together, because from the case that we just have here now,
10:09this young guy with you, from the interview we had with them, you can find them, you can notice that the charge against them,
10:18they never committed that offense. They never committed. So, the police have a rule, because most of the cases that they don't think,
10:28I would say, they don't defy the court, you know, and make the court like a dustbin. So, they don't defy them without proper investigation.
10:41And the more reason why these guys, we are, we are, we are not released. One, because I, I feel they don't have the, the financial motive to go back and forth at the, at the prison, to court, and the, and also they, they are not also, they are, they are not well educated when it comes to criminal justice system.
11:04Then, on the side of the, the prison authorities as well, you can see from their, from their experience, you know, how they, they, as in their, their life in the prison cell.
11:16My advice is that the federal government should, I don't know, they should do more, you know, improve the, the, the welfare there in the prison.
11:26And, you know, the living standard days. Even an animal can't just live in itself. And the kind of food they eat, you know, it doesn't, you, you, you, you can see how they look.
11:38Then, finally, the, the courts, the judicial system is very, very slow. These are slow and frustrating. There are some magistrates that, they just, when they are laying in court, they won't really study the file.
11:51They'll just, they'll just, they'll just get that, they'll just give that remando that, and you'll just be there wasting. And you have to wait for legal, if God, God help you, is, is, is not a capital.
12:04If it's a capital offense, you have to wait for legal advice. And this legal advice takes several months, like six or seven months, before it comes out.
12:14Except, except it is a case that, except it is a case that, well, that the eyes of everyone is on. And that is when the legal advice will come at the next day, which is not supposed to be so.
12:26Through the victims' own voices, we have heard their stories and struggles. And from these narratives, should people demand for change and more accountability?
12:41Well, we will let the system decide about that.