Date Published: 12/08/09

AK Govt. to relocate Nigerian prisons

Akwa Ibom Government may soon relocate some Nigerian prisons from the major roads to suitable locations to give the state a befitting status.

Governor O. Akpabio, who disclosed this Monday when the Assistant-Controller of Nigerian Prisons Service, Zone “E”, Alhaji Mohammed Idris paid a courtesy call on him at Government House, Uyo, said the sight of prisons on major roads creates psychological problems in the mindset of people especially children and affects the image of the area where the prisons are sited.

He explained that this was why the state government relocated the Ikot Ekpene Prisons to a suitable place and plans to relocate Abak Prisons soon.

The governor decried the deplorable conditions of some prisons in the Country, and stressed the need for total renovation of prisons to help in attitudinal change of the inmates.

He pointed out that some people who suffer incarceration for not committing any offence could become transformed, while other inmates could become useful citizens after prison custody, citing the then President Olusegun Obasanjo who came out from prison to rule the Country.

According to him, “You can come out from the prison to touch the lives of others or for your lives to be positively touched in the prisons”.

Akpabio argued that there was need for the establishment of prisons in a Country due to miscreants in the society, asking “I use to think why we have prisons. Why did the colonial masters establish prisons? I think there is need to do so to correct some bad behaviour among societal derelicts”

Governor Akpabio described the prison service as a crucial job because the inmates may embark on jailbreak for the officer in-charge to receive query, and called for restraint among the prison officials in the performance of their duty.

Citing the murder case of some people in Oruk Anam Local Government Area who murdered a man, wife and son on allegation of with craft, he justified the reason for the establishment of prisons to handle and punish similar people having psychiatric problems.    

While congratulating the assistant- controller on his merited elevation and subsequent posting to the zone, he promised to invite him for the inauguration three Green Black Maria and a bus to the prison service in the state.

Earlier, Alhaji Idris had congratulated the governor on the development strides in the areas of roads, airport, free education and building of Ikot Ekpene Prisons.

Idris thanked the governor for donating N6 million as 2008 and 2009 Christmas celebration for prison inmates and for promising to donate three black maria to the service, among others.

He said the modern prison should not be primitive in nature, calling for co-operation among the three tiers of government in providing facilities to provide the needed security in the prisons.