26 Oyo prison inmates pass NECO exam, to pursue varsity education

Twenty-six inmates of Abolongo Prison in Oyo town who sat for the 2018 external SSCE organised by the National Examination Council (NECO) got five credits each.

Mr Akinrujomu Tosin, the Controller of Prisons, Oyo State Command, disclosed this on Wednesday during the visit of the Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice Law to the prison.

The committee is headed by the Oyo State Chief Judge, Justice Munta Abimbola.

According to the controller, the command has commenced an arrangement with the National Open University (NOUN) to enable the inmates to pursue a university education.

Tosin said that it was the hope of the command that the inmates would not return to prison when released after attending university.

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The controller, however, expressed displeasure at the attitude of the police to inmates freed by the Chief Judge during his last visit to the prison.

“The police don’t give back the property collected from the freed inmates and it is these properties that most of the inmates use to do business to earn a living.

“I have written several letters to the police on this issue, but it had yielded no result.

“It is my belief that once an inmate is free, his sins are forgiven and I urge you to do something about this,” Tosin said.

The controller, who also said that the capacity of Abolongo prison is 160, lamented that it currently has a total of 456 inmates, with 364 awaiting trial and 92 convicted.

The chief judge, in his remarks, said that the visit of the committee to the prison was to ensure that the law was obeyed and the facility decongested.

Abimbola said that the law empowers the chief judge to release any person arrested and remanded unjustifiably.