NIGERIAN CORRECTIONAL SERVICE SEEKS BENUE GOVT'S SUPPORT TO REHABILITATE INMATES

The Controller of Corrections, Benue State Command, Makurdi, Mrs Mary Oche, on Monday sought the support of the Benue State Government to train and equip inmates especially youths to become better citizens.

She also solicited support for the command to start a National Open University (NOUN) center which according to her requires ten (10) computers and a room for NOUN staff to stay and train inmates.

The Controller made the requests in her office when she received the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to Governor Hyacinth Alia on Youth Mobilization and Empowerment, Hon. Mkeenem Moses, who was on a familiarization visit to seek synergy with the parastatal to curb criminality and reposition the youth of the state.

The SSA appealed to the controller to consider youths who have been in the custody of the service over time so that they would be reformed and rehabilitated to serve the society better.

In a response, Mrs Oche expressed readiness to synergize, noting that the youths are leaders of tomorrow and if they are not trained well, they can't be leaders.

"Most of them are with us in the yard awaiting trial", the controller disclosed, saying "our work is to reform, rehabilitate and then reinstate them back to the society".

She made it known that the Correctional Service has been training inmates in vocations like carpentry, hairdressing, shoe making, barbing, tailoring etc but their major constraint is lack of tools.

"If those tools are there, by the time those people finish their training, they will come back outside more fortified.

"We can get a shop for them and make them stay there and send people to visit them to see how they are growing. But we have this constraint of not having most of these tools that will help them and it will go a long way and anyone of them who goes to that centre will come back being a better person to be self reliant", Oche expressed optimism.

She further appealed that the service should be empowered to be able to train its officers so that even when the government is not there, they would train the inmates and equip them for self reliance so that they will not relapse to criminality for survival.

In the area of education, the controller said they have been synergizing with the National Open University and they have graduated about 2000 inmates and if empowered, they will establish a NOUN centre of their own, adding that some inmates who have not written their WAEC will also be trained to take the examination at the centre.

Highlight of the visit was the presentation of a plaque to Hon. Mkeenem by the controller as a mark of honour and appreciation of the State Government's support.

Good gesture from the state but they should do something drastic about those herd killers ravaging the entire community

SIXTEENTH:
Good gesture from the state but they should do something drastic about those herd killers ravaging the entire state

Governor Alia is doing his best in security. You can see since his tenure herdsmen crisis has reduced compared to what we see before

Oyikoha:

Governor Alia is doing his best in security. You can see since his tenure herdsmen crisis has reduced compared to what we see before

In a year time, we will see the outcome but for now he's in the lime light, kudos to him

SIXTEENTH:


In a year time, we will see the outcome but for now he's in the lime light, kudos to him

Darisit Boss😅🙌