Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel has granted amnesty to a
Sixty-four year old inmate of Medium Security Prisons, Ikot Ekpene, Mr.
Okon Sunday Akpan, of Etinan Local Government Area, having spent
twenty-five years and twenty-eight days in the Prison custody.
Governor Emmanuel, in company of the State Chief judge, Justice Stephen
Okon and members of his cabinet, granted the amnesty under the prerogative
of mercy charged the beneficiary to go and sin no more and spoke of the
need for proper upbringing of children by parents through sound moral
guidance to enable them become useful citizens in the society.
The Governor who was on a working visit to the Ikot Ekpene Prisons, said
that the visit was to look into the welfare of the inmates and reassured
them that they are citizens of the State.
He frowned at the slow dispensation of justice by the judiciary officers,
and emphasized the need for speedy dispensation of justice to save the
prisons of congestion, particularly those being incarcerated as awaiting
trail inmate
He said that the programmes of his administration are designed to engage
youths meaningfully in vocational skills as way of reducing criminality,
saying that Akwa Ibom people are known for discipline and hard work and
used the occasion to advise youths to shun the temptation of going into
criminality.
In an emotional laden tone, Governor Emmanuel advised the Prison inmates
to show genuine repentance, stating that remorsefulness is not repentance,
and assured that those whom the prisons officials have found to repent
from their initial behaviour would be granted pardon. He advised the free
inmate, Mr. Sunday Akpan to turn a new leave and let go his nick-name
‘Ikenga’, explaining that the name might have pushed him to his
predicament.
The State Chief Executive directed the Health Commissioner, Dr. Dominic
Ukpong, to facilitate medical access to two female inmates who are on
various stages of pregnancy and announced the donation of 100 bags of
rice, three cows to the inmates, and commended the Prison officials for
dedication to duty, describing them as reformers of the society.
Earlier, the Comptroller Prisons, Akwa Ibom State Command, Dr. Regina
Akpan, expressed appreciation to the Governor on his benevolent
disposition towards people in the prison custody and described the Ikot
Ekpene Prisons as the best in Africa. She said that the correctional
facility accommodates five hundred and Eighty three inmates of which five
hundred and forty-five are males, while thirty-eight are females.
She added that the facility has lived up its responsibilities of providing
custody to prison inmates, taking them to Courts on demand, identifying
the causes of anti-social behavior among Prisoners as well as provision of
medical treatment and training leading to reformation, rehabilitation and
reintegration of convicts into the society.
The Comptroller however, acknowledged the challenges confronting the
facility, listing them to include inadequate operation vehicles, shortage
of pipe borne water, inadequate facilities for training of inmates and
medicare.
She drew the governor’s attention to decayed infrastructure at Ikot Abasi
Prisons which said was built in 1912 and Eket Prisons, built in 1920 and
pleaded with the Governor to use his kind disposition to rehabilitate the
facilities.
While appreciating the Governor for the amnesty granted to the inmate, Dr.
Akpan condemned stigmatization of ex-convicts, stating that they may have
found themselves in prison custody for reasons out of their making and
remarked ‘anybody created by God can wake up one day in prison custody.’