As part of measures towards promoting peace and conflict prevention, the Rotary Club of Kubwa in Abuja has appealed to well meaning Nigerians to assist prison inmates with minor offenses to pay their fines.
The President, Rotary Club of Kubwa, Rotn Lovina Okorn-Ntui – PHF made the call when inmates numbering 10 regained their freedom with support by the club in partnership with other clubs to secure their release last week after offsetting their fines.
She called on other well meaning Nigerians to collaborate and partner with the correctional centres to decongest the prisons and make the correctional centres more habitable for inmates so that they can come out reformed and rehabilited to fit into the society.
The clubs which collaborated with the Rotary Club of Kubwa to facilitate the release of the inmates are the Rotary Club of Jabi Lakeside, Rotary Club of Abuja Prestige, Rotary Club of Asokoro and Rotary Club of Abuja Crystals, Rotary Club of Garki.
Okorn-Ntui-PHF who spoke in an interview said many inmates some of whom are women were sentenced for minimal offenses ranging from failure to pay a debt they owe and have been wasting away in prison simply because they could not pay the option of fine given to them.
While lamenting the appalling state of the Nigeria Correctional Centres, she said the clubs were able to raise funds for the inmates to secure their release as this will help to decongest the prison especially with the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic which has killed many, leaving more persons infected.
She revealed that the facility was being overstretched as the centre which was initially built to accommodate only 500 inmates now accommodates a total of 820 inmates crammed together in an inconducive environment.
The Rotary Club President said Rotary Club of Kubwa assured that they will adopt the gesture as it’s annual project by periodically going to the prison to identify inmates with minor or minimal cases whose sentences have been executed but could not pay up their fines so that they don’t remain there wasting away and making the prison congested.
She revealed that the Rotary Club of Kubwa had also engaged in other peace initiatives like the renovation of the police out station in Byazhin Across in Kubwa between November and December 2020 and donated
vital office equipment like cabinets, tables and benches to them to boost their moral for optimal service.
Aside this, the Rotarian disclosed that the club under her leadership had executed other project in 2020 in their adopted community, an abandoned community with no government presence, Kunganbukon in Bwari Area Council which included the revamping of the primary health centre in the community.
“The club also held a medical outreach during our community family health day for all the community members, we carried out treatment of common diseases for over 100 indegenes, testing for hypertitis and vaccination for 50 people, eye screening and donation of glasses.
“We also gave worm expellant, distributed mosquito nets to nursing mothers and expectant mothers and also connected water and electricity to that clinic because it had no water and electricity prior to that time in August, ” she added.
Among other projects executed by the club last year were the donation of tricycle to 160 polio survivors in Abuja out of which 10 were from Kubwa district in collaboration with other 16 Rotary clubs in Abuja .
Earlier, the President of Rotary Club of Wuse Central, Rotn Gabriel Nkup Tsenye said rather than allow the freed inmates to languish in jail, which will not be helpful to them, “we felt that they require rehabilitation to be able to go back home, reintegrate into the society.”
Also speaking, the Assistant Controller of Suleja Custodial Center, Musa Abdulrahman thanked the Rotary Clubs for the gesture and intervention and cautioned the freed inmates to go and be useful to themselves and the society.
