From Romans Ugwu, Abuja
The Nigeria Prison Service (NPS) has raised the alarm that Kuje Medium Prison is collapsing under the weight of insufficient drugs, poor supply of electricity and scarcity of water, among other serious challenges.
Controller of Prison Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Daniel Odharo, who said this when Rotary International Club, Abuja Metro, a non-governmental organistion (NGO) visited to donate drugs, library shelves and football materials to the inmates.
Odharo admitted that the visit and the items brought will improve the lives of the prison inmates, and described it as a significant gesture that should motivate other Nigerians.
Enumerating challenges facing the prison and describing the visit as worthy, he said: “The visit will go a long way to show love for the prison inmates.
“Some of the challenges we face here are problem of energy. The power supply is very poor. We also have problem of insufficient drugs, we equally have problem of water which is directly linked with the poor electricity supply. I cannot enumerate all because they are too many,” he lamented.
Speaking earlier, Rotary president, Robert Itawa, assured that the perennial power problem at the Kuje Prison will soon be over as the club will bankroll a N40 million project to provide solar to all the inmates cells.
Robert, who led his members to donate books, sports, drugs/medical items worth over N3 million to the inmates of the Kuje Prison, noted that the club decided to embark on the project to tackle the power challenge facing the prison inmates.
According to him; “It is a fact that power is a major challenge in the country but we recognised that the situation in Kuje prison is a peculiar one. We brought a team of professionals to visit the prison and we have also carried out the cost analysis.
“The solar energy project will equally cover the prison clinic which will help in the preservation of the drugs. Apart from the cells and clinic, we project will also provide energy to the Open University Centre for learning inside the prison. We believe strongly that the inmates will have a better deal with the project,” he said.
While quantifying the monetary value of the intervention, the club had provided to the Kuje Prison inmates, Mr Robert said: “What we brought to Kuje today was in the range of N3 million comprising items like drugs, medicals, books, library shelves, football materials and mowing machine for the pitch we re-grassed for the inmate footballers.
“It is a rolling thing because our club has annually partnered with the prison to ensure that the inmates are given better life.