Friday July 30, 2010 was probably the most interesting day of work for ABSU Law Clinicians this session when we embarked on a visit to the Director of Public Prosecutions Abia State, U. T. Nwachukwu Esq. with a view to securing the release of some inmates wrongly detained in prisons across the state. The team comprised of three 500 Level Students Orji Agwu Uka, Ihunweze Peterson, and Okoro Gloria Emea and a 300 Level Student Ndukwe Victor Osiri.
The report of our prison visits revealed that the office of the DPP was a key factor in actualizing our quest of securing the release of some inmates, help them attain justice, and contribute to the overall goal of prison decongestion. Some inmates said their cases were with the DPP but they had no Lawyer, nor the money to follow up their cases. A particular touching case was that of an inmate whose case the Court adjourned sine die due to the absence of the complainant, rather than dismissing the case for want of diligent prosecution. That was four years ago, since then his case has not been called upon again and he is currently languishing in custody. Further still, a majority of the cases were capital offences, but the accused persons were arraigned before Magistrate Courts that clearly lacked jurisdiction, but who always appear willing to remand the accused inmates pending the transfer of their cases to the appropriate High Court, which hardly happens. It was with this background, that the Clinic decided to visit the DPP, but what happened during the visit was hardly what the Clinicians bargained for.
The meeting which lasted about two hours took place with the DPP in the company of two of his Assistants. Hardly had the Clinicians settled down and introduced themselves when one of the Assistants launched into a tirade, demanding to know what qualified the Student Clinicians to represent prison inmates. He informed us that we were being over zealous and were wasting our time that should be devoted to positive ventures like preparing for our examinations, then graduate and represent all the inmates in the country if we so wished. They equally informed us that the position of law was clearly in favour of the procedure of remand proceedings wrongly termed holden charge by Human Rights Lawyers whose purpose was to discredit the procedure and the work of the DPP’s office.
After the initial belligerent beginning to the meeting, the leader of the delegation Orji A. Uka calmly intimated the DPP’s team of the essence of the Clinical Legal Education program as well the Law Clinic. He informed them that the Clinic was a body duly registered with the Ministry of Women Affairs and had powers to provide legal aid and services for the indigent members of the society especially the indigent inmates. When the meeting gradually took a more genial turn, it was mutually agreed that the office of the DPP was not the only problem of the justice system and in fact ranked behind other institutions like the police, who fail to transfer case files on time to the DPP ‘s office; and the Courts who delay the hearing of cases when they are finally filed. It was thus suggested that the Clinic divert efforts towards ensuring that case files of the Clinic’s clients do not last long on the table of the IPO.
The Clinicians thanked them for their time and secured the assurance of the DPP of the beginning of a more cordial and cooperative working relationship between the two offices.
