Blessing Okorite, Port Harcourt
A 56-year-old Clinton Chukwuma Kanu, who was recently discharged and acquitted by the Supreme Court over an alleged murder case after he had spent 27 years in prison, is urging the Federal Government to introduce a six-month compulsory prison immersion course for judges before assumption of office.
The consultant criminologist who was rescued by the Supreme Court on April 5, 2019, had been sentenced to death in 1992, following the death of a relative of his in-law in Imo State.
In this interview with The Nigerian Xpress in Port Harcourt, Kanu who hails from Nduwafor in Okigwe Local Government Area of Imo state, pleaded that if the government wants true justice in the judicial system, it should create a course where judges and magistrates will be cast into prison for six months to understand how the environment looks like before assuming their position in court.
Kanu who narrated his experience in prison, insisted that he was falsely accused and wrongly sentenced to death before God through the Supreme Court vindicated him and he was set free.
Recounting the incident that led to his sentence to death Kanu said, “About 27 years ago, after a court decided on a theft case in which I was wrongly accused, we suddenly heard that somebody was killed in my sister’s husband’s compound and the police arrested me again.
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“I was taken to the Okigwe Police Station and later transferred to Owerri, where I was charged to court in April 1992. I was detained in the Owerri prison. I was at the tribunal for seven years because those behind my ordeal included armed robbery to the charge against me. They believed I was a strong man and wanted to destroy me.
“They brought false witnesses to testify against me at the tribunal. I was later taken to a regular court where I was condemned to death. From Owerri I was transferred to the Port Harcourt Maximum prison. I went to Appeal Court to appeal the case but my lawyer messed up. “Simply, I was framed up. It was a gang up, they prosecuted me falsely, and at the end, the judge said I was guilty and convicted me. Very terrible bad man, he is a wicked soul. They found me guilty on a false witness on capital punishment and sentenced me to death.
“As I told you earlier, I went on appeal, after so many years of suffering, I sold all my vehicles, land, I sold everything I had, and then the church came to my rescue. The church got me a pro-bono lawyer, and the lawyer took up the case. But the case failed at the Appeal Court. Then I went to Supreme Court where I was discharged and acquitted. The court declared me innocent.
“That means if I had died all these while I was innocent, people could have thought I paid for the offence I never committed. After 27 years, the court discovered that I am innocent and discharged me. It is a terrible issue. I am just tired and frustrated, where do I start from. So there was call for funding for me by good Nigerians, I need help, to be counseled back together again.”
Speaking on the nature of judicial system that wrongly sentenced him to death, Kanu who acquired his M.Sc and two Doctorate degrees while in prison stressed that, “So many of the judges when they rule their cases at their whims and caprices, if they don’t like you, they do not do what the law says. Some of the lawyers operate with double standards. They collect bribe from the two sides, (prosecution and defendants).
“They should cast all these judges into the prisons and let them stay there for six months each. Let it be part of their trainings. Then when they have such experience, they will know that so many people in the prison are innocent. The judges should be put inside the cells, so that when they go back to their seats, they will have an idea of how people are suffering in the prisons.
“Infact, I said they should make it as part of their courses, cast them into the cell for six months, both judges and magistrates, so that when they come outside they will understand what is happening in there. I think that will help to decongest the prisons.
“You cannot get justice from all the lower courts, it is when you get to the Supreme Court that you can get justice because there are wise people there.”
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Speaking on the prisons environment, Kanu said “I spent 27 years condemned in the prison. The sanitary environment of the prison, especially the Port Harcourt Maximum Prisons is below 0%. The prison officers raise money from the church to keep that place clean and do more things there, as if there is no vote. Before the money comes down to the DCP, they have made all fed and he struggles to raise money to keep the prison going.
“Over 60 percent of inmates in the prisons are innocent, while others may have committed the offence that brought them there. You need to see people crying. There is hunger in the prison.
“Police are busy arresting innocent people and pushing them to the prison. The prison is congested and people are dying recklessly without the public knowledge. Two hundred people in one room. They smoke, they cook, very hot. To be sincere, inmates benefit from the kindness of the church, which helps prisons to run the affairs, especially in the area food.”
On how he got his educational degrees, Dr Kanu said, “I have this desire when I saw that some of the inmates really wanted education but not the secular one, I wrote to an American institution where I was directed to New Jerusalem University and I was directed to an African College that has an affiliation with Ahmadu Bello University, where I had my degrees. So I didn’t study Theology and Ministry when I was outside, I studied a different course. In prison I read diploma in Theology and Ministry, Guidance and Counselling (Msc), I also had two PhDs.”
