Nigeria, Feb. 21 -- The sullen and distraught 38-year-old woman sat on a bench at the Kirikiri female prison in Lagos. Although the State High Court struck out the criminal case against her four years ago, she has remained in jail despite no new charges brought against her in what experts say highlights the inefficiency in the Lagos judicial system.

Titilayo Benson first stepped into prison in 2010 on the order of an Ebute-Metta magistrate, Olatunji Isaac. She had been charged before his court, in suit number E/30/10, with occasioning the death of another person. She was 28 years old at the time.

"I fought with a lady," Mrs Benson said as she narrated to PREMIUM TIMES the event that changed her life. "She cut me with a razor then I stab...