In 1989, after a visit to Auchi Prison, the chief judge of Bendel State, Josiah Oki, was so disgusted that he told prison officials, "Even the cattle will refuse to be kept in this kind of cell." ▶️The previous year, one Karimu Lawal had spent three years awaiting trial in an Ilorin prison when a visiting judge noticed his frail condition and ordered that his case be finally brought before a court the next day. Four hours later, he was dead. ▶️That year, 46 inmates died in Kano Prison alone because of the terrible living conditions. ▶️More than 300 inmates also died in Ikoyi Prison, over 200 of them awaiting trial. Some had already spent longer behind bars than the sentences they would likely have received if convicted. ▶️Prisoners died from malnutrition, tuberculosis, scabies, dehydration, pneumonia, heart failure and liver disease. Some were buried in mass graves. ▶️Former inmates described a prison system where food was scarce, of poor quality, and sometimes stolen by warders. In Benin, the alleged theft of prisoners' food by warders contributed to a prison riot that left 24 people dead. ▶️By 1989, about 58,000 inmates were being held in prisons built for just 28,000. Convicted prisoners were housed alongside awaiting-trial inmates, including children as young as 15. ▶️A 1989 Newswatch report concluded, "From Aba to Zaria and from Shagamu to Sokoto, Newswatch investigations show that Nigerian prisons have become a national disgrace. Convicts who survive the ordeal of the prison come out usually worse, mentally and physically wrecked."