Underaged inmates: How hundreds of children will spend Christmas behind bars in Badagry Prison

Recently the Chief Justice of Lagos State Chief Judge, Justice Olufunmilayo Atilade, granted amnesty to 80 under-age inmates of the Badagry Prisons. She had been dismayed at the horrendous condition in which the children were being kept- during her visit there earlier in the year.

The Badagry prison is notorious for being a ‘dumping ground’ for young offenders who are often left there for years.

The minors, whose ages range from 12 to 17, were said to have been arrested and charged with offences bordering on breach of public peace and roaming.  Many of them became inmates of the prison owing to their inability to pay fines of N20,000 and N30,000.

Although, pictures are prohibited from been taken a visit to the prison would make many parents weep.

As the yuletide period approaches, many of the 500 children behind bars in Badagry prisons will not have the good fortune of spending it with their families.

The under-aged prisoners would spend Christmas in dingy cells:

The horror within the Badagry prison cells is better imagined, most of the children are held deep in the dingy cells of the prison among convicted murderers armed robbers, rapists, most of the children and teenagers are serving sentences for various offences ranging from petty theft to wandering and even street hawking.

Most of the children would spend Christmas with sores and diseases:

The under-aged prisoners this Christmas would still suffer daily neglect despite the global Christmas celebration, many of the kids live with untreated chicken pox, ringworm, scabies, possibly leprosy and a host of undiagnosed skin diseases

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Many of them will celebrate Christmas with open sores, oozing thick and yellow pus; some with open bullet wounds.

All the children are expectant and hopeful for freedom but unfortunately, many, if not all, will still spend Christmas in their dinghy cells

Many of the kids will spend Christmas mourning dead cell mates:

Children die like flies in Badagry prisons due to malnourishment, the kids have no care whatsoever. Many of the kids enter into Badagry prison healthy but are slowly consumed by treatable diseases; the sleeping conditions of the children are quite traumatic

Feeding is a major problem in Badagry prisons.The children are starving and are literally dying of hunger.