Human rights activists and the entire citizenry of this country have continued to demand immediate answers to some unanswered questions that have not ceased to generate controversies and ambiguities about the fracas that broke out between Ikoyi, Lagos Prison inmates and warders last week. These questions border on some legal and moral responsiblities the prison officers are expected to discharge without sentiment and bias in order to actualise the purpose for establishing prisons.

That two pistols were found in the prison; that 150 mobile phones were discovered; that two bags of Indian hemp were found with the inmates; that the inmates burnt six warders alive, and that over 10 inmates were gruesomely murdered during the crisis have not been answered. The prisoners, drawing attention of newsmen to bloodbath in the prison, confirmed that they had seen no fewer than 10 human bodies lying lifeless in pool of their blood on the prison floor.

According to Mr. Oluwatobi Ogunleye, a human rights activist, Nigerians are not satisfied with the explanation of the Minister for Internal Affairs and Comptroller-General of Nigerian Prison Service (NPS). Some questions regarding killing of inmates and burning of the prison's administrative block are still begging for immediate answers.

"We have heard," Ogunleye continued, "the comments of these public officials before and after the riot. Their responses are contradictory. Both of them have given the entire citizenry of this country clear account of the riot. However, some warders, who are not satisfied with the state of Ikoyi Prison, said to my hearing that more than necessary inmates were shot dead."

Another human rights activist, Mr. Adewole Ajewole said "how great is the havoc wreaked on the prison service and the country's criminal justice in the riot that ensued between warders and inmates in Ikoyi Prison last week? Contradictory versions of the story has been heard. Yet truth has not been told knowing as to what culminated in the revolt and how much damage incurred in the process."

As a show of commitment, Minister of Internal Affairs, Ambassador Mohammed Mogaji, accompanied by the Acting Comptroller-General of Prisons, Mr. Okwara Uche Kalu came calling at Ikoyi Prison. Journalists seized the opportunity to investigate what led to the uprising. His response called for another fresh inquiry.

Mogaji said, no one had been reported dead in the fracas. But a lot of things have been damaged. This testimony raised doubt in view of eye-witness accounts of what happend.

Silverbird Television and Channel Television showed how prison officers were beating the prisoners with sticks. To these warders, prisoners have no rights as citizens of this country. The prisoners must be asked whether this is how they were trained to reform lives of prisoners in the country. Human rights activists have not ceased to demand explanation regarding the extent to which the rights of these inmates were brutally abused and infringed on the day they revolted against all manners of injustice being meted out to them.

On what led to the riot, Mogaji said officers of Ikoyi Prison were on routine exercise of inspecting the cells that morning to ensure that inmates were not in possession of dangerous weapons. Surprisingly, officers found, the minister stated, some inmates had such items as knives, daggers, cutlasses, radio, television sets and mobile phones. The attempt to recover the items from them led to the uprising.

Relocation of inmates, and routine inspection of cells, according to him, are normal exercises carried out to ensure sanity in prisons and to maintain a balance between prison capacity and the actual number of inmates at a particular point in time. One human rights lawyer said, relocation is an integral part of prison administration. But to where will the inmates be relocated since government has not built an alternative makeshift for them?

This was, Mogaji held, necessary because awaiting trial inmates across the nation's prisons were always higher than the convicts. Well, there is no dispute as regards over-congestion of prisons across the country. But one need ask one fundamental question: Where are they relocating the prisoners since all Nigerian prisons are over-congested?

Neither the Comptroller-General of Prisons nor the Minister of Internal Affairs has been able to answer this question. To them, it is unprofessional to release every information to the public for security reasons. Nigerians still demand and equally seek to know where they are going to be relocated to since no new prison has built for this purpose, neither has any prison in the country been reconstructed or expanded to accommodate more inmates.

Kalu, who at a media briefing in Lagos the following day after the fracas, said one of the victims died while trying to set the prisons administrative block on fire while the other two met their deaths in an attempt to scale over the prison's fence to run away. He insisted that gunshots were not fired during the fracas. His comment differed from the minister's. Who is telling the truth between these public officials?

Kalu also insisted that the number of casualties was not more than three, pointing out, however, that many people, including inmates and prison officers received injuries. Two of such injured prison personnel, Kalu noted, were currently on admission in one of the public hospitals in Lagos.

Mogaji said at a media briefing on the day the riot erupted that no single inmate died. On the second day, having seen the report of most Nigerian dailies, Kalu, who was there at the time the minister spoke, came up with the confession that three inmates died during the fracas. Who among them is deceiving Nigerians. These contradictory comments, according to Ogunleye, show that the warders had during the riot committed what can be described as grievous crime against humanity.

Kalu said that there had been the impression among prisoners that once any of them was being taken out, he was going to be killed. Such notion, he said, was wrong as prisons are not centres to kill inmates, more so when many of these inmates were still on awaiting trial.

It was unprofessional, according to him, to discuss the movement of inmates with them, pointing out that there was no way they could be informed prior to being moved out or relocated. The Federal Government is currently working on a reform package for the prisons. Its implementation will soon take off as soon as the prison reform is perfected.

Public Relations Officer of the Lagos State Command of Nigerian Prison Service (NPS), Mr. Ope Fatinukun, similarly confirmed that the incident occurred because some of the inmates were being relocated. He explained that what happened was not a riot, but a misunderstanding among the inmates. Relocation exercise, he said, was unavoidable because the prison meant for 800 inmates had far overshot its capacity.

Like the minister, Fatinukun also denied that anybody died in the incident, nor was there any fire in the prison, stating that gunshots heard in the prison were tear gas canisters. He, however, confirmed that about five inmates, who were taken to the hospital for medical attention, were injured in the incident.

Fatinukun, who became very irritated by questions from journalists said the Fire Service was only called in to be on standby in the event of fire outbreak. He declined to say where the inmates were being relocated, stating that he could not do so for security reasons.

But contrary to the above claim, Lagos State Police Command's spokesman, Mr. Olubode Ojajuni, a deputy superintendent of police (DSP), who later spoke to journalists on the incident at his office in Ikeja, said the state Commissioner of Police (CP), Mr. Adewole Ajakaiye, heard shortly after the eruption of the riot that there was fire at the prison.

Ojajuni, who stated that the police commissioner immediately gave orders for policemen to be drafted there to ensure security at the prison, explained that the information as relayed to the commissioner was that the prison's record office and the office of the Chief Warder were on fire. He, however, did not say whether the incident recorded any casualty.

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