Nigeria, United Kingdom to Decide on Transfer of Convicts

Chief James Ibori

Countries sign compulsory prisoners’ transfer pact

Damilola Oyedele, Senator Iroegbu and Grace Chimezie in Abuja

Nigeria and the United Kingdom Thursday signed a Prisoners’ Transfer Agreement (PTA) that would enable their citizens serving jail terms in the two countries to be repatriated home to complete their sentences.

Under the deal, prisoners such as former Delta State Governor, Chief James Ibori, who was sentenced to a 13-year jail term on April 2012, by a Southwark Crown Court in   London for embezzling over $250 million public funds, would be sent back to Nigeria country to complete their jail terms. However, this is subject to the agreement between the two countries to repatriate such convicts.

The terms of the agreement, which has been under review since 2011, allow the two countries to repatriate a convict with or without his or her consent so long as the two countries have agreed to transfer the prisoner.

In the past, prisoner exchange programmes between the two countries could only be executed with the consent of the prisoner.

However, not all 521 Nigerians serving jail terms in UK prisons would be eligible for the compulsory transfer. 

At the signing of the agreement in Abuja, the UK Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice, Hon. Jeremy Wright, said it would be immediately difficult to be precise about the number of Nigerian prisoners eligible for transfer of the 521 serving time.

While Wright signed for UK, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN), signed for Nigeria.
He however noted that only those sentenced for 12 months and longer would be eligible for transfer to their country.

He also disclosed that there is just one British citizen serving a jail term in an undisclosed Nigerian prison.

THISDAY however gathered that others who would be exempted from being transferred to complete their jail terms are Nigerians with British citizenship, Nigerians who have a permanent residence status in the UK, and those convicted for small crimes such as parking ticket fines.

Commenting on whether Ibori would be sent back to Nigeria to finish his jail term, Wright, fielding questions from reporters after visiting supervising Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prof Viola Onwuliri, shortly before he signed the PTA, said although the transfer did not need the prisoners’ consents, it would still be necessary for both countries to agree on each transfer.

“In relation to individual prisoners, there obviously has to be a good deal of discussions between the two countries about individual prisoners and the agreement of both countries has to be secured for individual transfers.

“The compulsory nature of this prisoner transfer agreement is that the prisoners themselves do not have the choice as to whether they stay or go, but the respective countries still have the opportunity to discuss whether a transfer should be made, so I am not in a position to say whether individual cases would be transferred or not,” Wright said.

He added that there would be discussions over which prisons the prisoners would be sent to complete their jail terms.
“What we anticipate is that the Nigerian government would identify prisons, and we would look at those prisons and provide some assistance to the improvement of those prisons. That is a process that would be ongoing, but I hope very shortly, we would be able to identify the prisons and make that investment for reforms,” he said.

By August 2012, the UK government had already spent £500,000 on prison reforms in Nigeria to train prison guards and to fund an exchange programme for prison officials. An extra wing and a guard tower were built at the Kirikiri Prisons in Lagos. The UK also budgeted an additional £1 million for the success of the PTA.

Wright described the agreement as good for both countries and promised that by the end of 2014, the meaningfulness of the agreement would have been demonstrated.

Adoke, in his remarks, reiterated the commitment of the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan to the welfare of Nigerians residing in the UK.

“Even with the formal signing of this agreement, it is therefore our expectation that in implementing the terms of this agreement, the government of the UK would continue to accord all convicted offenders appropriate legal protection and remedies available under UK laws and relevant international human rights instruments, as well as ensure that all legal remedies have been exhausted before the affected offenders are transferred to Nigeria,” he said.

Adoke also reassured the UK of Nigeria’s commitment to see to the removal from Nigeria’s statute books, Section 22 of the NDLEA Act, which gives the federal government the right to file charges or prosecute a convict who has been convicted in any other country of drugs or related crimes. This, he added, negates the doctrine of double jeopardy.

“However taking cognisance of the judicial pronouncement in Nigeria that has declared that as unconstitutional, I am prepared to send an amendment to that law to the National Assembly to remove it from our statute books. We would not rely on it and we would respect the doctrine of double jeopardy,” he said.

The review of the PTA was one of the highlights of the meeting between   Jonathan and Prime Minister David Cameron during their 2011 meeting.
The agreement was hinged on the premise that it is better for prisoners to serve out their sentences in their home countries where they have a family support structure.