Minna — The wife of the Niger State Governor, Hajiya Jummai Babangida Aliyu, has spent reportedly spent a sum of N16.8 million for the construction and equipping of a skills acquisition workshop for prisoners in Minna.

According to Hajiya Aliyu, who gave the breakdown on the N16.8 million workshop expenditure, a total of N12 million was used to construct the workshop while N4 million was used to equip it.

Aliyu, who was at the Minna Central Prison to also graduate 96 prison officers and inmates after successful training in computer skills under the Life Rehab Foundation, expressed a desire to turn prisoners to skilled people after serving their jail terms.

"This occasion is not just about commissioning of the skills acquisition workshops, but also to felicitate with 96 officers and inmates that were successfully trained in computer between the year 2008 and 2009 respectively;

"The foundation's effort therefore is to support the Nigerian prison reform programme in order to improve the lives of the inmates, by making them goal oriented and improve their after care service, which is our major challenge", she said.

She urged trainees to ensure that the skills and knowledge acquired from the training will impact positively towards generating income for the inmates after they are released.

She also called on corporate organisations, NGOs and individuals to support the vision of adding value to the lives of prisoners and the less privileged for a better society.