By Mustapha Aleem
Oluwo of Iwo land, Oba Abdul Rasheed Akanbi, has promised to secure the release of 5 Ilesha prison inmates who had the option of fine.
Oluwo, who paid a visit to the Ilesha prison on Thursday, also tasked the Chief Judge of Osun, Adepele Ojo, on the quick release of the inmates who were awaiting trial, emphasizing that if inmates were to be released, it should be in 100’s and not in units.
The monarch also called on the Nigeria Prisons Service to put in place structures that would add value to the lives of the inmates while serving their jail term.
He added that prisons in other parts of the world trained their inmates academically and vocationally ahead of their release, saying it would relieve the society of more dependent people.
” Nothing stops us from having institutions where inmates will earn degrees even before they complete their jail term. To have a place where they can work to amass some money before they are released and to also send to their families while in prison, ” he said.
According to him, ” If inmates were released without a dime on them there is every tendency they go back to what led them to prison.”
He also urged the inmates to see the warders as their guardians in a different society and not detractors who facilitated their being in prison.
The Deputy Comptroller of Prisons, Ope Fatinikun, decried that Ilesha Prison, which had the capacity of 586 was currently occupied by 582 inmates, saying 454 of the inmates were still awaiting trial.
He also said, the prison was the only prison in the country that visited 72 courts in the state with just four vehicles.
He added that the Federal Government on a monthly basis expended the sum of 7.5 million naira to 8.5 million naira on feeding alone in Ilesha.
He also called on the people of Osun to come to the aid of the inmates. He said in spite of the fact that 98 percent of the inmates were from Osun state, the government and private individual had not been supportive.
He however lauded the feat of the monarch, urging him to educate other monarchs in the state on the need to cater for the inmates.
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