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Amina Abubakar(not real name) still remembers the days of horror and pain she spent at Suleja prison in Niger state. Life was beautiful for the 28-year-old when she got married in 2012. She had hopes of a blissful marriage, but little did she know that hers was going to be painful and tough.
In February 2013, she got into a fight with her husband, and he died a week later from the injuries sustained on his head. She was accused of killing him and eventually landed in Suleja prison. The experience would change the course of her life for the worse.
“I was two months pregnant before the incident happened,” she recalled. “Life wasn’t easy for me at all while I was pregnant in the prison.”
Despite their varied and complicated needs, female offenders admitted to Nigerian prisons are subjected to the same conditions as males.
Out of Nigeria’s 70,000 inmates, 1,297 or two percent are females, including 984 who are awaiting trial. As at November 2021, the Nigeria correctional service places the number of pregnant inmates at five.
During her time at the female ward in Suleja prison, Abubakar cohabited with 11 other inmates; sharing six double-bed bunks with small mattresses.
With her due date approaching, it did not take long before she fell sick. As she would recall, “there were no medical doctors when I was there. My family was taking care of my health challenges each time I went to the hospital and they would have to fuel the prison vehicle
My birth experience was not easy,” she said, adding that her pregnancy lasted for 12 months.
“At Suleja General Hospital, (where most pregnant inmates go to), I was told that the placenta has covered the baby’s face… and that’s why the baby is not moving at all.”
What could have happened?
Back view of Amina Abubakar.
Fred Achem, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, said a normal pregnancy should last for about 280 days or 40-42 weeks, and when the baby stays beyond the normal time frame, the placenta begins to fail.
“The placenta works very well until 36 weeks which is about the end of the eight months. By the end of the ninth month, the placenta fails critically and starts to affect the nutrition of the baby. And this causes stress to the baby, causing it to produce fetal cortisol that ignites labour pains,” Achem said.
After she was eventually delivered of a baby boy, then came a bigger problem: breastfeeding. “My breast milk production was low. There was no special food for me in the prison except additional things like tea that my family brought for me,” she said.
Abubakar was eventually acquitted on July 7, 2019, after seven years in prison, and subsequently returned home to meet her son who addressed her as “aunty” because of the years spent apart.
Section 34 of the bill contains specific measures to address their “special” needs, which includes the provision of a creche for the wellbeing of babies in custody, and prenatal and antenatal health care for the mothers.
But compliance with the provisions is quite low, worsening the fate of pregnant inmates like 18-year-old Kemisola Ogunniyi — even though she stayed at an all-female prison in Ondo state, one of the three built for women in the country.
She was arrested during the #EndSARS protest in October 2020 and accused of burning public property. Unlike Abubakar, she was not aware of her pregnancy until she was transferred to the Ondo Female Prison on November 24, 2020. There, she stayed with 16 others in a room she says was “not big”.
“The prison has no bed frame, only a foam and it is kept on the floor,” she said. “The foam is like a normal student foam and we have a blanket each to cover our body. We were given one uniform each to be worn from Mondays to Fridays, then Saturday and Sunday, we normally wear our own clothes.”
She was also denied proper antenatal care neither did any doctor visit her.Ogunniyi said she was only taken to the hospital when there was an emergency and that the cost was borne by her lawyer and family.
“They did not take me for antenatal until two weeks or a month to my delivery. They don’t have any hospital in the prison but there is a health centre located behind the prison though it does not belong to the prison,” she said
“No hospital, no dispensary and no sickbay in the prison. All the time I was there, no doctor came to check me and my baby and I was the only person pregnant in the prison. They have no special food for pregnant women.
“They serve us less than one cup of beans every morning. [In the] afternoon, sometimes they give us ordinary garri to soak without sugar or anything else, or sometimes, eba. And in the evening, garri with soya beans soup that is tasteless and has no oil, fish or meat in it. They normally serve us rice only on Sundays.”
Section 34 (1) of the NCS Act mandates that there shall be a provision of separate facilities for female inmates in all states of the federation but this has only been established in Ondo, Lagos, and Edo.
In February 2013, she got into a fight with her husband, and he died a week later from the injuries sustained on his head. She was accused of killing him and eventually landed in Suleja prison. The experience would change the course of her life for the worse.
“I was two months pregnant before the incident happened,” she recalled. “Life wasn’t easy for me at all while I was pregnant in the prison.”
Despite their varied and complicated needs, female offenders admitted to Nigerian prisons are subjected to the same conditions as males.
Out of Nigeria’s 70,000 inmates, 1,297 or two percent are females, including 984 who are awaiting trial. As at November 2021, the Nigeria correctional service places the number of pregnant inmates at five.
During her time at the female ward in Suleja prison, Abubakar cohabited with 11 other inmates; sharing six double-bed bunks with small mattresses.
With her due date approaching, it did not take long before she fell sick. As she would recall, “there were no medical doctors when I was there. My family was taking care of my health challenges each time I went to the hospital and they would have to fuel the prison vehicle
My birth experience was not easy,” she said, adding that her pregnancy lasted for 12 months.
“At Suleja General Hospital, (where most pregnant inmates go to), I was told that the placenta has covered the baby’s face… and that’s why the baby is not moving at all.”
What could have happened?
Back view of Amina Abubakar.
Fred Achem, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, said a normal pregnancy should last for about 280 days or 40-42 weeks, and when the baby stays beyond the normal time frame, the placenta begins to fail.
“The placenta works very well until 36 weeks which is about the end of the eight months. By the end of the ninth month, the placenta fails critically and starts to affect the nutrition of the baby. And this causes stress to the baby, causing it to produce fetal cortisol that ignites labour pains,” Achem said.
After she was eventually delivered of a baby boy, then came a bigger problem: breastfeeding. “My breast milk production was low. There was no special food for me in the prison except additional things like tea that my family brought for me,” she said.
Abubakar was eventually acquitted on July 7, 2019, after seven years in prison, and subsequently returned home to meet her son who addressed her as “aunty” because of the years spent apart.
LEGAL BACKING OVERLOOKED
In addition to international laws protecting incarcerated pregnant women and their children, which Nigeria is a signatory to, President Muhammadu Buhari in August 2019 signed the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS) Act which provides improved welfare for pregnant prisonersSection 34 of the bill contains specific measures to address their “special” needs, which includes the provision of a creche for the wellbeing of babies in custody, and prenatal and antenatal health care for the mothers.
But compliance with the provisions is quite low, worsening the fate of pregnant inmates like 18-year-old Kemisola Ogunniyi — even though she stayed at an all-female prison in Ondo state, one of the three built for women in the country.
She was arrested during the #EndSARS protest in October 2020 and accused of burning public property. Unlike Abubakar, she was not aware of her pregnancy until she was transferred to the Ondo Female Prison on November 24, 2020. There, she stayed with 16 others in a room she says was “not big”.
“The prison has no bed frame, only a foam and it is kept on the floor,” she said. “The foam is like a normal student foam and we have a blanket each to cover our body. We were given one uniform each to be worn from Mondays to Fridays, then Saturday and Sunday, we normally wear our own clothes.”
She was also denied proper antenatal care neither did any doctor visit her.Ogunniyi said she was only taken to the hospital when there was an emergency and that the cost was borne by her lawyer and family.
“They did not take me for antenatal until two weeks or a month to my delivery. They don’t have any hospital in the prison but there is a health centre located behind the prison though it does not belong to the prison,” she said
“No hospital, no dispensary and no sickbay in the prison. All the time I was there, no doctor came to check me and my baby and I was the only person pregnant in the prison. They have no special food for pregnant women.
“They serve us less than one cup of beans every morning. [In the] afternoon, sometimes they give us ordinary garri to soak without sugar or anything else, or sometimes, eba. And in the evening, garri with soya beans soup that is tasteless and has no oil, fish or meat in it. They normally serve us rice only on Sundays.”
Section 34 (1) of the NCS Act mandates that there shall be a provision of separate facilities for female inmates in all states of the federation but this has only been established in Ondo, Lagos, and Edo.
Maltreated and neglected: The plight of pregnant women in Nigerian prisons
Amina still remembers the days of horror and pain she spent at the Suleja prison. Life was beautiful for the 28-year-old when she...
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