55,000 inmates awaiting trial in Nigeria — PPDC

The Public and Private Development Centre has said about 55,000 inmates are awaiting trial in Nigerian correctional centres, raising concerns over prolonged detention and limited access to legal representation.

The organisation’s Chief Executive Officer, Lucy Abagi, disclosed this on Tuesday at its Third Annual Law for Humanity Summit 2026 in Abuja, where she said the high cost of legal services had left many indigent Nigerians unable to secure lawyers.

Abagi said the organisation had secured bail for more than 8,500 Nigerians and prevented about 20,000 others from being admitted into correctional facilities through its interventions over the past four years.

She said the 55,000 figure represented inmates in Nigerian Correctional Service facilities for which the organisation had data, adding that it did not cover every detention facility in the country.

“Of course you know that the cost of hiring a legal representation in Nigeria is quite high. And how many Nigerians can afford this? So PPDC is adopting different strategies, using low-cost effective measures to ensure that we have lawyers representing Nigerians across different detention centres.

“And I’d like to say that there are different detention centres in Nigeria, but as of this moment, we only have data that represents the Nigerian Correctional Centres, and of course that is about 55,000 awaiting trial inmates,” she said.

Figures published by the Nigerian Correctional Service showed that 53,670 inmates were awaiting trial as of June 29, 2026, out of a total custodial population of 82,195. The awaiting-trial population accounted for about 65 per cent of inmates in the facilities at the time.

Abagi said PPDC had supported about 11 university law clinics in the past four years, working with pro bono lawyers and police solicitors to review case files and assist detainees.

She expressed concern that some people had remained in custody for periods longer than the possible sentences for the offences they were accused of committing, without their cases being concluded.

The PPDC chief executive said the organisation was working to sustain the interventions despite funding challenges, and called on development partners, philanthropists and members of the public to support efforts to improve access to justice.

The summit, themed ‘Justice in the Age of Data and AI’, brought together representatives of the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, the Nigerian Bar Association, pro bono lawyers and university law clinics to examine how technology could improve access to legal services.

Speaking at the event, a Professor of Law and President of the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Yemi Akinseye-George, warned that the use of artificial intelligence in the justice system must be regulated to prevent it from worsening inequality.

He said AI could help bridge the gap between wealthy and indigent Nigerians but should not replace the responsibilities of lawyers and judges.

“AI has come to stay and we must recognise it as a tool for advancing justice, as a tool for bridging the gap between the poor and the rich,” he said.

He cautioned legal practitioners against relying excessively on the technology, stressing that they remained responsible for the accuracy of their work.

“Humans must be in control. We must take responsibility and we must put in place effective mechanisms for regulating AI to make sure that it does not become another instrument for oppression, another instrument for widening the gap between the rich and the poor,” he added.

The Director-General of the Legal Aid Council, Aliyu Abubakar, represented by his Technical Assistant, Bamidele Ibikunle, also urged lawyers and judges to verify information generated by AI before relying on it in legal proceedings.

He warned that lawyers could end up citing non-existent or inaccurate court decisions if they failed to check AI-generated references against authoritative law reports.

The summit was attended by representatives of law clinics from the University of Jos, Nile University, Ahmadu Bello University, Veritas University, the University of Abuja, Prime University, Baze University and Philomath University, among others.