Spokesman says service to reform prison inmates

The spokesman of the service, Mr Francis Enobore, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday, in Abuja.

``We have the primary, secondary and of recent, tertiary institutions in the prison, courtesy, the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) into which a number of the inmates have keyed and are running various programmes.

``These things are all ongoing. It is our desire to ensure that no prisoner goes out of the prison the way he or she was when they came in.

``That has been the policy thrust of the present Controller-General of Prison.

``He is committed to seeing that no prisoner leaves the prison the way he came.

``He wants to ensure that one way or the other prisoners are reformed and do not return to their previous lifestyles.’’

``We have a number of skills acquisition centres across the country and we have a plethora of skills like welding, shoe-making, dress-making, and farming which we are trying to recuperate now going by the recent economic structure in the country.

``We have 14 large farm centres across the country and a number of small agric projects like fishery, poultry, piggery, cattle rearing and all of that.

``These programmes are all going on and a number of inmates are been trained in them.’’

He said the standardisation effort of the Minister of Interior, retired Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazzau, had addressed the challenges in the prisons.

``We are not out of the woods yet, but will get there; we are moving in the right direction.’’