Imo Correctional Centre Boss highlights inmates’ skills, products

Imo correctional centre boss highlights inmates’ skills, products

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The officer-in-charge of the Owerri Correctional Centre of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Eke C. 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.

Speaking to South-East PUNCH on Monday, Eke said, “Before now the prison used to be very much punitive, you just come, serve out your sentence and go. Today, given the new nomenclature, every inmate is expected to learn one trade or another, no matter how short. Based on that, we allow the acquisition of skills to prevail here.

“Today, in this centre, inmates learn how to make soap, shoes, sandals, laundry and liquid soap, tailoring, sewing, barbing, name it. It’s on record that our shoes are one of the best you can get in the state.

“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.

“The idea is that after the inmates are reformed, rehabilitated and reintegrated back into society, they become not only skilful but useful to themselves and the society at large. We don’t reintegrate them back into the society empty-handed. The inmates must acquire the skills that they need to make them better citizens after they serve out the years in the custodial centre.

“The skills and empowerment are for convicted inmates but those awaiting trial are also not denied the opportunity when available. We keep telling the inmates that there’s no problem here, the problem is outside. That’s why we are equipping the inmates for the challenges and problems outside.”

Eke revealed that the facility has a NECO examination centre where the inmates write exams.

He enthused, “Last year, we had 10 inmates who wrote the NECO examination and they scored 100 per cent. Of all who took the examination last year, everybody passed. The margin of scores was between A and B. Today, we have over 15 inmates who will be writing this year’s examination.

“We have the challenge of marketing the products produced here. Nobody even knows we do all these things here. We call on the residents of Imo State to patronize the products produced here, even at a cheaper rate to encourage the inmates.”

Eke also urged good-spirited individuals and philanthropists to come and register the inmates for the NECO examination, as some of them cannot afford the registration.

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.

“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.

“There’s the need to support the skills being acquired by the inmates.”

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