Once every few months, volunteers from Headfort Foundation, the non-profit organisation Oluyemi Orija founded in 2018 collect the cases of poor inmates who have spent months, sometimes years, in jail without trial. They provide free legal services in one of the toughest judicial systems in the world. Even before the coronavirus pandemic hit, campaigners said Nigeria’s police made conditions in the country’s congested prisons worse through brutality, extortion and harassment. She concluded that women were better suited to the job and less susceptible to corruption. So far, the group has secured the release of more than 100 inmates, many of them men. They are currently handling a further 90 cases in various Lagos courts.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
More Stories
Inside the AAI Gala
Malian Basketballers Apologize for Brawl
Experts at the WTO Public Forum Talk Greening SMEs to Harness the Benefits of the AfCFTA
Dealing with Child Marriages on the Continent
Tighter Controls at Uganda’s Borders
The First Statue of an African Displayed in Trafalgar Square
Ramaphosa’s Opponents Want Him Impeached over a Growing Scandal
‘An Organized Attack on Freedoms by the Remnants of the Old Regime’ – Sudanese Lawyer
A Proposed Ban on the Deployment of Kenyan Domestic Workers to Saudi Arabia
Trial of Guinea’s Former President and Others Accused of the 2009 Stadium Massacre Begins
Essential Medical Supplies at Critically Low Levels in Ethiopia’s Conflict Zone
DRC Apes Kidnapped for Ransom