A UK-Based Charity organisation, New Bethel Christian Center has donated loaves of bread, bags of sachet water and over five hundred litres of diesel to Onitsha prisons.
The organisation founded and coordinated by the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Awka Capital Territory Development Authority, Venerable Amaechi Okwuosa, had in the past three years, spent over fourteen million naira in various prison visitations, built houses for ten persons, provided educational scholarships for twenty-eight students and sustained legal aid and advocacy that had helped secure freedom for over thirty-three inmates awaiting trial.
Last year, the entire convenience at the facility was also renovated by the Organisation.
The items were handed over to the Deputy Comptroller of prisons in charge of Onitsha Prisons, Mr Mazi Chuks.
Presenting the items, Venerable Okwuosa, explained that the visit was in keeping with God’s injunction to Christians to be practical in their preaching of the gospel and to secure a better living for the inmates.
On the poor condition of facilities at the prison, Venerable Okwuosa called on government and public-spirited individuals to invest in rebuilding infrastructure at the Prisons, the establishment of craft and skill acquisition programme for inmates as well as an introduction of rehabilitation courses for freed inmates to enable them to reintegrate easily into the society.
He further called on the Judiciary and other stakeholders to speed up the criminal justice system to ensure that innocent people are not incarcerated for too long at the Prisons.
Receiving the items, the Deputy Comptroller of Prisons in charge of Onitsha Prisons, Mr Chuks thanked the Organization for its work of charity which he said has gone a long way to improve the living conditions of the inmates and appealed to other high privileged individuals to emulate them.
The Metropolitan Archbishop of Onitsha Catholic Archdiocese, Most Reverend Valerian Okeke whose prison visitation coincided with that of the Organisation commended Venerable Okwuosa for what he is doing and prayed God to reward him immensely.
Venerable Okwuosa and other members of the Organisation were later conducted around the prison facility where they interacted with and admonished some of the inmates