THE Nigerian Correctional Service has been urged to introduce reforms that would make the inmates of the nation’s custodial facilities more useful to themselves and the society.
The Chief of Staff to Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State, Hon. Prince Johnson Erijo, made the call when the State Comptroller, Nigerian Correctional Service, Delta Command, CCS Raymond Nwagu, paid him a courtesy visit at Governor House, Asaba.
Hon Erijo noted that the prisons, as they were previously called, were not just meant to be confinement facilities for convicts or suspects awaiting trial, but to serve as correctional centres for them to be of good conduct after serving their jail terms or freed by virtue of their innocence.
He expressed delight at the engagement of inmates of Correctional Centres in farming activities where the Service had recorded a huge success, advising that the inmates should receive counselling, be made to embrace religion and given skill acquisition training to make their integration with the society easy.
The Chief of Staff thanked the Correctional Service for accepting to build its borstal training institution for the entire South South in Aviara, saying that the multiplier effect of having the institution in Delta would be enormous.
He assured the State Comptroller of government’s support for the proposed institution and for the building of the State Command’s headquarters in Asaba and urged him to work towards actualizing the project before leaving the service.
Earlier, CCS Nwagu thanked the state government for its continued support for federal establishments in the state, especially the State Command of the Nigerian Correctional Service, citing the massive land donated to the Service at Aviara, in Isoko South, for the establishment of a borstal training institution, which he remarked would open up the area for more development and give it a federal presence.
The Comptroller commended the Chief of Staff for facilitating the donation of the land and urged him to assist in fast tracking the processing of the Certificate of Occupancy to properly secure the land.
He also appealed to the state government to complete the process of land acquisition for the construction of the State Headquarters of the Command in Asaba, and for logistics support to the organisation.
