The ECOWAS Court of Justice has ordered Nigeria to decongest its overcrowded correctional facilities.
In its judgement delivered on Friday, the court directed the Nigerian government to implement measures such as “periodic judicial review of cases involving prolonged pre-trial detention.”
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The court shared the details of the judgement in a statement on Monday.
According to a three-member panel led by Ricardo Cláudio Monteiro Gonçalves, the Nigerian government must “introduce and implement a comprehensive prison decongestion policy, including the adoption of non-custodial measures for minor and bailable offences.”
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The panel, comprising two other judges, Sengu Mohamed Koroma (judge rapporteur) and Edward Amoako Asante (member) who consented to the judgement, directed the government to “submit a detailed compliance report to the Court, including statistical updates on the number of inmates released or tried,” within six months.
The suit
The applicant, Centre for Community Law, approached the ECOWAS Court to challenge the prolonged detention of persons awaiting trial in correctional facilities.
It alleged widespread human rights violations of awaiting-trial inmates in Nigeria’s correctional centres.
It backed its case with the 2024 data on inmate population across correctional facilities in Nigeria.
According to the statistics, of the total 79,237 inmates, 26,718 were convicted, while 52,519 were awaiting trial, representing nearly 66 per cent of the inmate population.
Most detainees “were held for bailable offences and remained in detention for periods exceeding the maximum punishment prescribed by law,” the group said.
It also argued that the centres were overcrowded and as result “imposed an excessive burden on public resources while depriving society of their economic contribution.”
Also, it alleged that these violated Articles 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 22, and 26 of the African Charter.
However, the government rejected the allegations and argued that the group had no right to initiate the action.
It also challenged the statistics presented to the court.
The parties eventually argued their cases before the court adjourned for judgement.
Judgement
Delivering judgement, the court noted that “the prolonged detention of a substantial number of awaiting-trial inmates and the resulting overcrowded prison conditions in Nigeria’s correctional facilities breached the rights to liberty, dignity, fair hearing, presumption of innocence and the right to be tried within a reasonable time, as well as equality before the law as guaranteed under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR).”
The court also held that the group could initiate the action in the interest of the public since it is a registered NGO and has a legal standing to pursue the matter.
All the statistics and official records were credible, the court ruled, noting that the respondent (the Nigerian government) did not present any evidence to debunk them.
It ruled that “the prolonged detention without trial and prison overcrowding violated the rights to liberty, presumption of innocence, unequal treatment before the law, respect for human dignity, and the right to be tried within a reasonable time of the numerous awaiting-trial inmates. It also breached the Respondent’s international obligation to adopt legislative, administrative, and institutional measures necessary to give effect to protected rights.”
The court however dismissed the group’s allegation that the Nigerian government violated Articles 22 and 26 of the African Charter.
Section 22 recognises that all peoples have the right to their economic, social, and cultural development, while section 26 deals with obligations imposed on state parties to guarantee the independence of their courts, allow the establishment and improvement of appropriate national institutions designed to promote and protect the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Charter, establish the legal framework and enforcement mechanism necessary to make rights like the ones in Article 22 practically achievable at the domestic level.
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Previous calls to decongest correctional facilities
The ECOWAS Court’s directive is the latest in persistent calls from different quarters for interventions aimed at tackling the overcrowding in Nigeria’s correctional facilities.
Congestion is a plague in the correctional centres. In July 2025, the House of Representatives Committee on Reformatory Institutions called for an urgent infrastructural overhaul of Nigeria’s correctional centres, citing years of neglect and chronic overcrowding.
In August 2025, the panel which investigated abuses within the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) called for intentional adoption of non-custodial measures to reduce overcrowding in correctional centres.
The Secretary of the Panel, Uju Agomoh, speaking on the adoption of non-custodial measures to address overcrowding, said, “It is very clear that the issue of non-custodial measures is something that is supposed to help us as a nation address the overbearing population in our various custodial centres.”
During the hearing, a delegate from the NCoS, I.N. Idris, said that awaiting-trial inmates constitute more than half of the inmates in some congested custodial centres.
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