The Federal Government has been urged to set up a special intervention fund to assist ex-convicts.
The Founder and Executive Director of Women Initiative for Development and Environmental Protection (WIDEP), a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), Prof Olufunke Egunjobi, said such would enable the ex-convicts live normal lives after having served their jail terms.
Egunjobi, who spoke during an empowerment workshop organised by the NGO to train female inmates in Ado-Ekiti Prisons yesterday, lamented that the manner of operation in Nigerian jails had made rehabilitation of inmates difficult.
She canvassed holistic restructuring of the nation’s Prison Service to reposition it for provision of skills for convicts.
This, the former university teacher said, would assist in reshaping the lives of ex-convicts and integrate them to society after their jail terms.
According to her, the inability to re-orientate convicts in Nigeria through skills acquisition as obtainable in advanced climes like United States and Britain had caused the geometric increase in crimes in the country.
At the workshop, all the female inmates in Ado Ekiti Prisons were trained by experts in Adire making otherwise known as tie and dye, animal production, back-yard fish farming, snailery and trinket or hat making.
Egunjobi, who said WIDEP had spent over N3 million to empower prisoners and ex-convicts in the last few years, assured the trainees that they would benefit from the gesture on completion of their terms.
She, however, advocated stiff penalty for actions targeted at ostracizing or stigmatizing ex-convicts to help the nation’s criminal justice system.
According to her, the NGO is focusing on the rural women in its operation, owing to the high level of poverty at the grassroots.
The Founder and Executive Director of Women Initiative for Development and Environmental Protection (WIDEP), a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), Prof Olufunke Egunjobi, said such would enable the ex-convicts live normal lives after having served their jail terms.
Egunjobi, who spoke during an empowerment workshop organised by the NGO to train female inmates in Ado-Ekiti Prisons yesterday, lamented that the manner of operation in Nigerian jails had made rehabilitation of inmates difficult.
She canvassed holistic restructuring of the nation’s Prison Service to reposition it for provision of skills for convicts.
This, the former university teacher said, would assist in reshaping the lives of ex-convicts and integrate them to society after their jail terms.
According to her, the inability to re-orientate convicts in Nigeria through skills acquisition as obtainable in advanced climes like United States and Britain had caused the geometric increase in crimes in the country.
At the workshop, all the female inmates in Ado Ekiti Prisons were trained by experts in Adire making otherwise known as tie and dye, animal production, back-yard fish farming, snailery and trinket or hat making.
Egunjobi, who said WIDEP had spent over N3 million to empower prisoners and ex-convicts in the last few years, assured the trainees that they would benefit from the gesture on completion of their terms.
She, however, advocated stiff penalty for actions targeted at ostracizing or stigmatizing ex-convicts to help the nation’s criminal justice system.
According to her, the NGO is focusing on the rural women in its operation, owing to the high level of poverty at the grassroots.
No comments:
Post a Comment