Nigerian Correctional Services in Anambra State, Friday, prevented courts access to inmates under their custody, citing security challenges in the State.
Sources told Factcheckng.com that correctional centres at Onitsha specifically told police prosecutors that they could only allow them access to their inmates if they agree to relocate or administer their cases only at courts within the commercial nerve of Africa.
As a cases involving witnesses currently in detention in Correctional Centers were put on hold in various courts as police said they were put on alert to that effect.
In many courts, lawyers who were to either examine or cross examine such witnesses in detention were taken aback when they did not see prison officials and their witnesses in court.
In one of the courts around Onitsha, a prosecuting counsel told a presiding Chief Magistrate that it was not even clear how long the order might last, explaining that the only detained witnesses that might appear in court in the interim were those in police custody.
A source who spoke on the issue said: “Many cases have been adjourned because of security challenges around Correctional Centers. The absence of the Awaiting Trial Men who were supposed to appear in courts for their cases could not do so as there is a standing order from the prison officials that no detainee would leave the Correctional Center for any place outside the prison walls.
“For any Awaiting Trial Men (ATM) to be taken out of the Correctional Center for any reason for now must be by a special arrangement, which may not be easy to make.”
Some courts have, however, decided that hearing of cases would continue in the absence of the witnesses to avoid unnecessary delay in trial.