Leadership (Abuja)
29 August 2008
The Prison Service in Ogun is negotiating with the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) to train 40 inmates in vocational jobs, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
Mr Kunle Babalola, the new Controller of Prison in the state told NAN yesterday in Abeokuta in an interview.
"I have met with the officials of the NDE, so they want to help us train over 40 prison inmates, what we are waiting for now is for them to give us the roster for the training schedule.
"We want NDE officials to train the inmates so that after their jail terms, we just give them after care equipment," he said.
The controller also said that some ex-convicts who had been discharged, would be invited for the training.
According to him, in the last two years, the state government had assisted the command in the area of training, reformation and rehabilitation of prison inmates.
"The prison, fundamentally, is not meant for people awaiting trial but because of the large number of such people in the prisons, the category of inmates we have are those awaiting trial.
"They put too much pressure on the infrastructures, he said. He, however, said that the plan of the present administration was to ensure that inmates are trained, particularly the convicted ones, "because the percentage of the convicted ones we have is low.
"We have carpentry workshop, tailoring, bricklaying and photography among other vocations, to ensure that the inmates are trained at different vocation centres in various prisons across the state.
"When they are discharged, they are given 'after care equipment' and with this, they can continue with life".
"We don't want them to come back to crime. We just want to break the circle of going in and out of prison at all times and back into the society.
"The Controller-General is very much concerned and is interested in this training programme, particularly in the training of the inmates," he said. (NAN)
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