Terror convict, Charles Okah, who masterminded the 2010 Independence Day bomb blast in Abuja, has exposed how administrators of the New Minimum Security Custodial Centre (NMSCC) in Maiduguri, Borno State capital, allegedly killed inmates in large numbers with starvation and medical negligence.

Okah made the revelation in a personal account shared with SaharaReporters where he stated with specific cases, how inmates starved to death under the watch of prison warders and administrators and numerous others deliberately neglected by the prison authorities. 

Okah in a personal account shared with SaharaReporters had said that the atrocious killings took place on Tuesday, September 10, 2024.

SaharaReporters had reported that the Nigerian Correctional Service had declared 281 inmates missing from the prison but Okah alleged that the inmates were largely killed by the same authorities. 

In his personal account, Okah also narrated how inmates with mental disorder who have no help from family and friends and every other inmate who cannot raise the funds to purchase prescribed medicine, or fund to pay for treatment/transportation starve to death and die in their numbers of various illnesses after being neglected by the prison authorities.

He said that in the meantime, under the management of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), “Prisons in Nigeria have been using unorthodox methods to get rid of a particular category of its inmates gradually and surreptitiously.”

According to Okah, “Considering that a penitentiary is quite distinct from a psychiatric institution or a mental asylum, an observant first time visitor to a Nigerian prison will be perplexed after reading through the amateurish-painted notice boards usually found in the reception areas that list the various categories of inmates and their current numbers inside the facilities.

“Listed on the board are inmates on death row, lifers, short and long time sentences, awaiting trial, detainees, debtors and even lunatics! The lunatics are grouped into civil lunatics and criminal lunatics.”

Okah said that none of the Nigerian prison admitting and confining lunatics have the professional capability to effectively manage them. 

“The staff have no training whatsoever in handling lunatics nor are the appropriate infrastructure in place to house them. 

“Induction training courses in all four NCoS training schools and curricula are grossly deficient in preparing trainees to manage lunatics. Not even the NCoS “standing order’ manual are lunatics made any reference to,” he said.

He said that in MMSCC where he has been an inmate serving a life sentence since March 13, 2018, or Kuje prison Abuja where he spent almost seven years awaiting the conclusion of his trial, or NMSCC from where several eyewitnesses transferred there before and after the floods had also shared their experiences, the story is the same. 

Okah said, “The cell walls where suicidal or violent lunatic kept are not padded to prevent them from hurting themselves. 

“Instead of using a straightjacket as a restraint, warders rely on handcuffs, ropes, leg chains, batons, whips and pepper spray which causes further injury or death.

“Lunatics are not taken to the psychiatric hospital or visited by a psychiatrist for any form of evaluation, therapy or treatment, they rely on a goodwill of a nearby psychiatric hospital willing to donate free medicine which of course becomes irregular or as it is unsustainable.”

He further revealed that in MMSCC, “These prescription neuroleptic drugs, when available, are entrusted with unqualified illiterate inmates to assist administer. 

“Drugs are given without prior consultation with the patient or any follow-up to regulate dosage adjustments when necessary. 

“In most cases, these medicines end up in the mouth of normal inmates who buy and abuse them for their calming, intoxicating and sleep-inducing effects.”

He noted that by reason of insanity, the lunatics ought to be receiving treatment in the wards of the psychiatric hospital, but “Majority of them are on death row awaiting execution by hanging and sharing in common, the crime of parricide.”

He said that during their trial, they lack the financial resources to hire a good lawyer and thereby depend on the court-appointed counsel to represent them. 

“No expert witness such as a certified psychiatrist is called to the witness stand to attest to their mental state at the time the crime was committed.

“On conviction, they are not even aware of the seriousness of the sentence and cannot be bothered with appealing at the appellate courts because in the first place, there is hardly any family support for a madman,” he added.

He cited the example of one Alhaji Bulamaka who committed patricide, saying that long before he began hearing distinct voices in his head egging him on to butcher his father, he was an outpatient in a neuropsychiatric hospital where he was receiving treatment for schizophrenia, a mental illness in which a person becomes unable to link thought, emotion and behaviour.

“During his arrest, the family, aware of his mental condition did not press for charges but opted in court that he should be detained in prison custody for his own safety where he was conveniently abandoned and forgotten. In prison, Bulama was admitted as a criminal lunatic detainee.

“It has been observed that lunatics in general have a strong body constitution. When one considers their unhygienic habits and insalubrious surroundings, they rarely succumb to sickness that would ordinarily knock out a normal person. They eat food picked up from a filthy floor or the rubbish dump. 

“But when they eventually become sick enough to require medical attention in a definitive healthcare facility outside the prison that would require money and preliminary investigation, follow-up treatment and surgery, that is when they meet a road block,” he stated.

Okah recalled that in February 2023, Alhaji Bulama became very sick and was taken to the infirmary in Maiduguri Maximum Security Custodial Centre – “a clinic only by name.”

Okay further revealed, “He was given something that has no relevance to his condition as the clinic did not have basic paracetamol in stock and returned to his cell.

“On the morning of February 23, his condition deteriorated with a high temperature and dehydration. 

“Recognizing a pattern that had resulted in the deaths of previous lunatic inmates and not wanting Bulama to die in his cell, an inmate carried him on his back to the clinic as soon as the nurse resumed duty, no medical staff was on the night shift.

“The only nurse on duty that Sunday morning did not have the basic diagnostic tools to work with. Not even a clinical thermometer or blood pressure apparatus. 

“Because she lacked gloves, she couldn’t bring herself to use her bare thumb to check his pulse and no attempt was made to arrange for the critically ill man to be referred to the emergency room of a hospital outside the prison.

“She asked those who brought in Bulama to wait outside, and moments later the inmates were told offhandedly that Bulama was dead. 

“His death was attributed to “God’s time "; the information did not come as a surprise to fellow prisoners who had seen it all happen before.”

He also said that in July, 2024 and in the space of twenty days, five deaths including three lunatics were recorded in NMSCC. They died under suspicious circumstances.

He said, “In the first three weeks of September 2024, three more lunatics died in their cell here in MMSCC. 

“Then on September 21, another lunatic died in his cell making four deaths in the month of September in MMSCC.”

Okah quoted a paramedic working in one of the prison’s clinic as saying defence of the NCoS, “The NCoS does not have the resources to cater for the medical needs of normal inmates who require treatment outside the prison, much less madmen who have no future and are useless to themselves and the society.

“When an inmate requires definitive treatment, we demand for his relatives to be contacted for money to cover medical expenses including fuel to transport him to and fro.

“In the case of lunatics in prison, they have no relatives that can be reached, so what are we expected to do? The only solution under the present circumstance which will be a win- win situation for everyone, including the sick lunatic is euthanasia.”

Meanwhile, he said that Timipa Jenkins, a human rights lawyer and activist he spoke with, disagreed vehemently with the NCoS. 

“He countered the justification of the NCoS to carry out “mercy killings” as nothing more than “extra judicial murder” since euthanasia has not been legalized in Nigeria,” Okah said.

He also recalled a case of one mentally challenged boy, Goni Ali Shettima, who was eight years old when he became a prisoner in MMSCC in 2016.

Okah said, “He was living with a mental condition akin to autism. During an army raid on his community in their search for Boko Haram members and sympathisers, Goni was rounded up along with scores of men, women and children.

“They were first taken to Giwa Barracks in Maiduguri and kept in the dungeon for a few months there, because of his cravings and insatiable appetite for fish he won the nickname, “fish”.

“From Giwa Barracks along with several others who by this time had been labelled as “Boko Haram Terrorists”, Goni was transferred to MMSCC where he began the next phase of a harrowing experience in perhaps the country’s cruellest state-authorized detention of persons.

“On arrival Goni was admitted as “Criminal Detainee Lunatic” by the confused prison authorities eager to admit Boko Haram suspects because of the money allotted to them for their care without having a clue on how to manage the frightened mentally challenged child.

“He was locked away in cell no. 16 unit 3 in cluster 2 ( the cluster dedicated to inmates on death row) alongside older condemned men. 

“For two years he was left permanently inside the cell and fed through a slot in the door like a caged dangerous animal.

“He slept on the bare floor and used pieces of rags for a pillow. It was at this time that I met him in 2018. Afterwards, his cell was opened everyday from 0900am to 1:00pm and that was when the opportunity to prostitute and sexually abuse him began.

“While some inmates patronised him for sexual relief, others with fetish objectives, sodomized him for a ‘good luck’ ritual that prescribed sex with a madman or madwoman for its efficacy.

“He was never seen by a psychiatrist until the day he walked out as a free man after Sahara Reporters made his story public using excerpts from an article I sent to them and videos posted on YouTube.”

Okah said that lunatics in prison such as Frank Uju, Yusuf Inusa, Lawal Sambo, Ali Kwaya.... and many others spread across Nigeria’s prison network are only alive today because they haven’t become sick to the point of needing medical attention outside the prison walls. 

“They are living in borrowed time.”

He recalled another case of Suleiman Salisu, who was eleven years old when he clubbed his lecherous father to death. 

He said, “Since the age of six, he had endured an incestuous relationship that always occurred whenever his father got into a state of excitement after sniffing glue. 

“Then one fateful day, Suleiman snapped. During his short trial, his mother was discouraged by relatives from revealing the family secret and shame. 

“She complied, her son was duly sentenced to death by hanging at the age thirteen. Now an adult of eighteen years old, Suleiman who was also regularly sodomized in prison by older inmates now does the very same thing to the many juveniles who readily offer their bodies in exchange for food and essential commodities to survive the hunger and disease ravaging the prisons. 

“His mental state requires the urgent attention of a psychiatrist. The Nigerian Army through its court-martial has also been contributing its own share of lunatics to our prisons. 

“All of these mentally ill soldiers dumped in prison had at one time participated in the war against Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast region. Side effects from years of abusing intrepid-enhancing drugs issued by their commanders to give them Dutch courage before going into the battle has taken its toll. 

“Undetected mental health challenges such as PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Manic Depression, Bipolar Disorder) neurosis, psychosis, hemicidal schizophrenic, paranoic, anger to mention just a few. 

“The progression of their mental health follows a sequence of events thus: the undetected mental health – the issuance of a rifle with live ammunition – the crime- follow by years in the military police guardroom awaiting trial – the army court-martial that does not use the services of certified psychiatrists to ascertain the mental state of the soldier at the actual time the crime or offence was committed – the conviction on the day of judgement – the confirmation of sentence – then away to prison in a worse mental state.”

He revealed that one Ex-Lance Corporal Frank Uju, also known as “Major Naga” was issued with a rifle and live ammunition by the army that failed to detect the progression of his mentally ill condition until it was too late. 

“Then one day, without any motive or provocation, he shot and killed his girlfriend and friends close to her. 

“Frank is in a terrible state, tormented by demons he talks with. He can be seen doing army drills day and night completely naked. 

“Since his arrival, Frank has not been seen and treated by a psychiatrist. The only obligation the prison authorities seem to have for him and other lunatics is providing the ration meals. No more, no less.”

According to Okah, although lunatics in prison are more at risk, compounded by their mental condition and absence of support from family and friends, “Every other inmate who cannot raise the funds to purchase prescribed medicine, or fund to pay for treatment/transportation are also in grave danger.

“Inmates with toothache requiring extraction, to those whose eyes need to be examined by an ophthalmologist suffer in silence. 

“While sufferers of hernia, haemorrhoids, hydrocele etc. are left untreated as their conditions worsens. Many asthma sufferers have died because they did not have an inhaler.”