Forced To ‘Make Love’ To Wall: Bizarre, Nasty Newcomer ‘Initiation Ceremony’ Among Nigerian Prison Inmates

As dreaded as Nigerian prisons are, if you think that admission into the ranks of inmates is free, think again. In this report, KUNLE FALAYI sheds light on some of the funny and sometimes downright nasty ‘initiation’ practices that guarantee a newcomer a ‘pass’ into the belly of the beast Like every ‘closed’ organisation.


In a chat with our correspondent, an ex-inmate of the Ikoyi Prison said his cell had a hole in one of its walls for that purpose. According to him, that part of the initiation is usually for those who prove stubborn or slow in doing the bidding of the cell leaders.

He related a nasty experience of a new inmate, who drew the ire of his new cell leaders, when he was instructed to start the set of activities that constitute his “initiation ceremony, but he ignored them, was forced to “make love” to the wall.

The ex-inmate, who preferred anonymity, said, “He was being pompous. I think the young man was from a very rich family. He hit someone with his car and the person died. That was how he ended up in prison. I had been in the prison for about six months when he was remanded.

“When it was time for his ‘welcome party’ and they told him to tell stories of what was happening outside, he refused. They asked him other personal questions, he refused. They asked him to sing, he refused. I still cannot forget what happened that day. Presido of our cell and his ‘executives’ forced the young man to make love to a wall. It is a way of punishing errant inmates. There was a hole on the wall of our cell, which he was forced to put his manhood in and make love to it till he started bleeding and crying. The hole was there exactly for that purpose.”

Another ex-inmate of the Kirikiri Medium Security Prison, Lagos, Victor Aguma, told our correspondent that he went through almost the same experience when he found himself behind bars in 2012 at the start of a four-year incarceration.

But he said at Kirikiri, the initiation process, which is dubbed “Alejo Story” (newcomer story) at the time he was there, was taken so seriously that any new inmate who refused to do what was asked of him was beaten up and punished by the other inmates.

“The first day I got to the prison, I was told right away that I could not just get a stay in the cell even though prison officials had assigned me to the cell.

“During the Alejo Story at Kirikiri, there were so many questions you had to answer on politics and social life in the free world. Some of them don’t know what has happened in the free world in the last 10 years, so they are always eager to get information from you. Whether you do what they want will determine if you sleep on the bare ground or at least on a semblance of cushion on the ground since beds are reserved for the leaders.