It was a bleak drizzly early evening typical of Eastern Nigeria in September, but I defied the weather, the deplorable roads and muddy streets to get to my destination in Ozara, Isuikwuato L.G.A. of Abia State.

Locating the house of the Onyeabu family was not as difficult as
my maiden visit had been. This time, the one hour motorcycle ride was a little less unbearable.

From my observations, nothing much had changed about the area since my last visit about two years earlier as Student Head of ABSU Law Clinic. The roads were as bad as ever, and the area was still dominated by small buildings clustered together.

But while nothing much had changed for the generality of the Ozara community, everything had changed for the Onyeabu family. After a six year wait, justice had finally found its way to their home, their son Smart* had been discharged by the High Court and released from prison.

Smart was a pre-trial detainee at the Umuahia prisons where he had been in detention for 6 years on the charge of armed robbery. He was arrested on 31st October 2006 at the age of 17 on and just turned 21, a few months before the ABSU Law Clinic came into contact with him.

The Clinic could not however do much for him since he already had legal representation, secured by his poor mother (a peasant farmer) and it would run contrary to the ethics of the legal profession in Nigeria to offer legal services to a person who already had legal counsel.

Fast forward to seven months after the initial contact, the Law Clinic met him again during a follow up visit to the prison to meet other detainees. He requested audience with us and bitterly complained about the services of the Lawyer.

In fulfilment of the promise we made to him, we attended his next Court sitting at Isuikwuato High Court on the next date and confirmed his claims. From the Court records, his Lawyer had only appeared 3 times out of the 21 times the case was scheduled for hearing.

The Prosecution Counsel had fared only slightly better, appearing only 11 times.

According to the Registrar, on each date, the case would be called up and adjourned due to the absence of either Prosecution or Defence Counsel and other times due to the failure of the Prison Officials to convey him to Court for want of transport fare. We had to do something.

It was then I decided to take the first trip to his home town Ozara together with another Clinician, @OsiriNdukwe to meet with his family and at their request, explained to them the ethical implications and procedure for change of counsel.

After ascertaining that the family could not afford legal services, the Clinic provided support to the Prisons authorities to enable him meet his subsequent Court appointments.

First the family amicably terminated the brief of the previous counsel and handed the case file to the Clinic. Next we secured the services of a legal practitioner, Mr Emeka Okoroafor, an Alunmus of the University and a Staff Clinician of the ABSU Law Clinic to take over.

Thus began a battle to ensure access to justice for Smart and possibly secure his release, and you bet it did not come easy. It took a further eighteen futile attempts from the day of his arraignment to the last adjourned date, before Smart was able to make a court appearance.

Our dedicated efforts yielded results on the 11 May 2012. In the face of apparent want of credible evidence against Ifeanyi, the Prosecution applied to withdraw case and the Court dismissed the charge, thus bringing to a happy ending.

As I saw Smart on the occasion of this second visit beaming with smiles and doing his best to pick up the pieces of his life, a large chunk of which had been robbed from him by the criminal justice system, I knew that justice had indeed been taken to someone in need of it.

Unfortunately Smart’s experience, which was illustrative of the failings of the Nigerian Criminal Justice System, is not an isolated case.

Chima Abasirim*, another prominent case of the ABSU Law Clinic, was on holding charge for eight years before the Law Clinic came to his rescue.

Chima was arrested by the Police, detained, arraigned before an Ideato South Magistrate Court in Imo State on the charge of conspiracy to commit armed robbery (without a co-accused) and subsequently remanded in Okigwe Prisons in December, 2003.

Until the Clinic came into contact with him in 2011 during a routine Pre-trial Detention visit to Okigwe Prisons, Chima had been wallowing in detention, had not been formally charged before a High Court that has jurisdiction.

In the process, he had suffered loss of job and education opportunities, in addition to being exposed to disease, physical and psychological damage and to compound his woes, his family had no knowledge of his whereabouts after his arrest as he had been unable to contacts them.

Follow up visits to his community Ideato South carried by a team of clinicians led by @nwigweoma revealed that his family had no knowledge of his whereabouts. His aged father, who had presumed him dead assured the Clinic of his cooperation in every area he was needed

The Clinic decided to take up the case. Chima subsequently secured his freedom after the Clinic paid an advocacy visit to the Chief Judge of Imo State which resulted in his discharge from prison following a Jail delivery exercise of Okigwe Prison undertaken by the Chief Judge.

These cases highlight the failings the Criminal Justice System in Nigeria but at the same showcase the potency of private involvement in enhancing access to justice in Nigeria.

The ABSU Law Clinic is one of the several Law Clinics established by the Network of University Legal Aid Institutions @NULAINigeria under the leadership of @ernestojukwu SAN to provide access to justice for the underserved members of the community.

Most of the Law Clinics also have a specialized Pre-trial Detention Prisons Clinic, dedicated to providing legal services for needy pre-trial detainees in the prisons located within the localities where the Clinics are situated.

The Law Clinic are doing wonders and they require support of Govt, MDAs esp those involved in justice delivery, the Private Sector, Legal Practitioners, Alunmi of the Law Clinics and the general public to continue this lofty efforts at taking justice to those in need.

N/B This is not a work of fiction

*The first names were changed to protect the identity of the persons.

This was originally published as my personal blog in September 2012

https://orjiauka.blogspot.com/2012/09/taking-justice-to-those-in-need.html?m=1