| New
deal for discharged prisoners
•Nigerian Prisons Service and
an NGO set up After Care Centre
By YINKA FABOWALE
Wednesday,
May 2, 2007
 |
•
Elijah Ibiyemi, receiving materials that he will work with after his time at the
prisons from Prof. Akinterinwa
PHOTOS: DADA OSASONA
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Doyin Alagbe, 32 and Elijah Ebiyemi,
37, both inmates serving sentences at Agodi Prisons, Ibadan had long nursed apprehension
on how to piece together the rest of their tattered lives and make a fresh decent
start in life, when eventually they were discharged.
However, they pondered
only in despair, once reminded of the social stigma and rejection members of the
public, including even their families, often reserve for ex-jailbirds.
Now,
the duo are facing the future with assured hope and confidence – thanks
to a new initiative by the Nigerian Prisons Service Authorities and Prison Rehabilitation
Mission International (PREMI), an NGO devoted to the reformation of ex-convicts,
which sees to successful rehabilitation and re-integration of ex-prisoners into
the society.
Alagbe, a National Certificate of Education (NCE) holder had
gone in for manslaughter in 2001 after a fight with her husband’s mistress.
Although the incident happened in 1998, she had been in gaol since then. While
serving her sentence, she "got born-again," through the activities of
evangelists who visited the prison.
She developed interest in dress-making,
after admiring the fashionable attires of one of her Christian friends, one Mrs.
Popoola of New Covenant Church, during a visit to the prison.
"I used
to think they were imported ready made, but she told me, no.
I took it
as a challenge to try and make similar wears and she encouraged me. I learnt sewing
at the prison’s workshop and that was how I started," said Alagbe,
during the exhibition of her works at the After Care Centre, a major facility
where discharged prisoners could be trained in various vocations and empowered
financially.
She soon added beads and women bag making, which fetch handsome
profit.
From stipend she got from her husband, who occasionally visited
her, Alagbe was able to start up the business from which she said, she had saved
a net profit of N32,000.
She told Daily Sun that she used to feel dejected
about what the future held for her, having been told that she could not get a
white collar job in the teaching service with her professional certificate anymore,
being an ex-convict.
"But with this, she said, pointing to her stand,
which was full of assorted fashion materials, "I’ve realised I don’t
need to worry."
The mother of two said she was a new creature and had
realised that her experience was meant to achieve a positive thing in her life.
"When
the judge convicted me, I thought she did me a bad thing, but now I have discovered
she has done the best for me", the delectable young woman said.
Reflecting
on the crime, which brought her into prison, Alagbe said: "When one is not
in Christ, life without Him is full of crises. You do wrong because you lack the
knowledge of God. Although, I was born into a Christian family, I did not know
or lived a true Christian life. Now, I knew better."
The woman, who
received equipment including a sewing machine, overlocking/weaving machine and
2OU, in addition to scissors and tape rule, on the occasion, lauded the government-PREMI
initiative, saying beyond offering hope to the prisoners, it will help check the
syndrome whereby criminals return to their old ways because of lack of something
to do.
Her words found echo in Ebiyemi, who was also presented with furniture
and upholstery tools to enable him set up on his trade.
A youth armed robber,
Ebiyemi was heading for a robbery operation in Ibadan along with members of his
gang in 1994 when they were intercepted by policemen. While the others escaped,
he was arrested with arms, including a pistol, which he revealed, belonged to
an uncle of his, who was a senior police officer. He was arrested, tried and convicted
for the crime.
However, like Alagbe, he "met Jesus in 1997, while
awaiting trial through the preachers who evangelised in the prisons. He was, however,
to backslide in 1998, when he was convicted and sentenced to 14 years imprisonment.
"I
lost faith because, I’d thought I would be discharged and acquitted having
become a Christian."
One Pastor Kola Akeredolu, revamped his faith and
he started reading the Word of God and became really strong in the faith.
Today,
an ordained pastor, Ebiyemi took to learning furniture making and upholstery works.
Among
the instruments he got were saw, hammer, iron plane, pinchers, drilling machines
and chisels.
At the commissioning of the N25 million facility, located
on Beere-Bode-Molete Road, Ebiyemi and Alagbe, who are billed to bid farewell
to their co-inmates in September and January respectively, were among the beneficiaries
of the pilot scheme.
PREMI’s Director General, Pastor Kayode Williams,
himself a former prisoner and armed robber, said, at least, N200 million would
still be needed to make the centre fully operational.
He thanked the Federal
Government for embracing the idea and supporting it with N5 million, and Oba Adedapo
Tejuosho, Chief Michael Adeojo, chairman, Toyota Nigeria Limited, as well as Chief
Afe Babalola (SAN) for raising the money that saw to the completion of the centre.
He
said the idea behind the project was to ensure a focus shift from the panel to
rehabilitation prison system.
"It is not the amount of terms they
(prisons) spend that will guarantee a change of heart, but by the word of God
and how creatively you engage them."
The Controller General of Prisons,
Mr. Olusola Ogundipe, observed on the occasion that the ultimate measure of prison
service laid in successful integration of discharged prisoners into the society,
hence the setting up of vocational skills acquisition training centre. He noted
that some prisoners had relapsed into their criminal habits because of lack of
money to start their businesses.
The prison boss said the Federal Government
had committed N25 million to the take-off of the centre and six similar ones sited
in various zones of the country.
He charged officers who would be in charge
of the centre, which he described as the first of its kind in the country, to
make judicious use of the facilities. |
