“By the time I came out of prison… Over four people died that week in my cell. We were 190 in the cell and the bunks were not up to 100. The rest of us slept on the bare floor. So many people fell sick, and there were no drugs to treat them,” said Nicholas, a graduate who spent ten months in jail because his boss willed it.

Funke Adeoye of Hope Behind Bars first shared Nicholas’ story on Tuesday. Still known by only his first name, Nicholas was a graduate and a keyboardist before his boss got him jailed. His offense? he resigned from his photography role and that resignation offended his boss who got him arrested and charged to court for “intentional insult”.

Nicholas recounted that he spent two days in police detention before he was charged to court. But because he could not afford an initial bail payment of N100,000, which was later reduced to N50,000, even his boss’ withdrawal from the case was insufficient in preventing him from spending ten months in prison.

This is Nicholas. A 26 year old graduate, photographer & Keyboardist. Sometime in October 2023, Nicholas sent a text message to his boss resigning his role as a photographer in the photo studio. His boss was angry at the content of the text message & got him arrested. From… https://t.co/0ltSXLUG0W pic.twitter.com/MoCAOb42Yh— Funke Adeoye (@thefunkeadeoye) August 27, 2024

In an Access to Justice event on Friday, Nicholas narrated his horrific experience as a prisoner at Keffi Prison.

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“The prison system has no correction or rehabilitation program going on,” he said.

“For the first few months, I was sleeping on the bare floor, and I was only surviving on ration (food ration). I didn’t take my bath for three months, but I was fortunate because I was a keyboardist in church. The chaplain used his influence to help me get a bed and then they were giving me food, garri sometimes because I was active in church.”

Remember Nicholas? The 26 year old photographer and graduate that was in prison for 10 months because of his boss and couldn’t afford bail? He was at the Access To Justice roundtable meeting earlier today and shared his experience. #OSSAPCL#AccessToJustice #IYD2024 pic.twitter.com/VfseNkZYxP— Amina M. Abdullahi (@Mvnaaa___) August 31, 2024

Nicholas also explained how he kept apologising the day the police came to arrest him, and he soon found out later from his employer that there was also an claim of theft against him.

“He said that the day I resigned from work, he discovered his phone was missing. He said he had customers’ contact worth N1 billion on the phone, and he said I would have to pay for it,” Nicholas explained.

Nicholas’ is one in numerous cases of Nigerians stuck in a country’s overpopulated prison system, even when no convictions are made.
The post ‘No Bath for 3 Months, Inmates Died’ — Graduate Recounts Prison Life Employer Wrongfully Gave Him appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.