LAGOS, Nigeria(VOICE OF NAIJA)- The officer-in-charge of the Owerri Correctional Centre of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Eke Eke, has described the skills acquired by inmates of the centre and their products as capable of improving the economic status of the state if properly harnessed.
Eke, in a statement on Monday, said, the prison used to be a place to serve your sentence and go but now every inmate is expected to learn a skill ranging from making footwear, liquid soap, to tailoring, barbing and many more.
“We have 12 inmates who can make any kind of shoes.
“When you check those that make shoes and tailoring locally, our products are the best you can find around here. Our soaps are the best produced by the inmates. We are not producing detergent yet because before we produce detergent, we need the production machine.”
“Everything we wear here, except when we want to go outside, is sewn in this place, both uniforms and civil wear. The female wing of the inmates is not left out. They’re using the driers in the female salons, where they do hairdressing.”
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He went further saying the idea behind the initiative is to successfully reform, rehabilitate and reintegrate inmates back into society. This will make them useful to themselves and the society at large. In his words, “equipping the inmates for the challenges and problems outside.”
Eke also revealed that the facility has a NECO examination centre where the inmates write exams. He mentioned the success of 10 inmates who wrote and passed the exams last year and another 15 who will be writing this year’s examination.
In the aspect of challenges, he disclosed the difficulties in marketing the products made by the inmates. He called on the residents of Imo State to patronize them “even at a cheaper rate to encourage the inmates.”
“We are also faced with the challenge of finance, as most of the products are being financed by individual officers because of the passion they have in supporting the inmates.”
He said, “I took it upon myself to reach out to some parents to come and register their children so that they benefit from the productive skills and empowerment offered by the centre.”
Eke also urged benevolent individuals and philanthropists to help inmates register for the NECO examination, as some of them cannot afford to do it themselves.
Punch
