Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
An educational body of the Nigeria Prisons Service, the International Prison Chaplaincy Association of Nigeria (IPCAN), is set to collaborate with the Ministry of Education in Imo State to give educational training to inmates of Owerri Prison.
National President of IPCAN Gill Ogbonna disclosed this to reporters in Owerri on Thursday when he led a delegation of senior officers of the Association in a courtesy visit to the State Commissioner for Education, Professor Viola Onwuliri in her office.
In his speech, Ogbonna, who condemned the congested prison with total number of 2,173 inmates, noted that the situation has been a major hindrance to formal education by the inmates.
He informed the Commissioner on the need to aid the rehabilitation of inmates by supporting the prison schools where inmates can pass through a formal education.
He regretted that the prison school in Owerri comprised only two classroom blocks in an uncompleted building and lacked adequate facilities for learning.
Ogbonna blamed the immediate past government in the state for the unhealthy development, just as he lambasted the former Governor for neglecting the classroom blocks to erect a new prison quarters without consulting the prison authorities.