Health

Adeleke Approves Enrollment of Inmates into Osun Health Insurance Scheme

By Web News 396

By Funmi Ojo

Osun State Governor, Senator Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke, has flagged off the free enrollment of inmates in correctional centres across the state into the Osun Health Insurance Scheme, OHIS.

While officially declaring the enrollment of inmates into OHIS open at the Ilesa Correctional Centre, the Governor explained that his administration’s drive was to make healthcare accessible to all residents without discrimination and to extend the dividends of democracy to every segment of the societies.

Governor Adeleke said the initiative was in response to an appeal made by the Controller of Correctional Service in Osun State, Mr. Olalekan Oluwadele, during a recent visit to the Government House.

He described inmates as bonafide citizens who deserve quality healthcare and welfare support, adding that his government would not discriminate based on status, religion, gender, or political affiliation.

In his remarks, the State Controller of Corrections Service, Mr. Olalekan Oluwadele, commended Governor Adeleke for his unwavering support to the Nigerian Correctional Service, NCoS, for his approval to enroll 1,200 inmates into Osun Health Insurance Scheme, OHIS.

Mr. Oluwadele also lauded the Governor for past interventions, including granting amnesty to 53 inmates, renovating operational vehicles, and showing solidarity after the escape of seven inmates in May 2025.

He acknowledged reforms introduced by the Federal Government under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu through the Ministry of Interior, particularly the increase of daily feeding allowance for inmates to N1,125.

Mr. Oluwadele appealed to the state government for more support to strengthen security and improve facilities, including the installation of barbwire and CCTV cameras, provision of solar power, food supplies during festive seasons, tools for skilled inmates, and Independence Day amnesty.

He assured that the Nigerian Correctional Service remains committed to reform and rehabilitation in Osun State.

In their separate remarks, the Chairman of the Osun Health Insurance Agency, Dr. Muyiwa Oladimeji, and the Executive Secretary, Dr. Rasak Akindele commended the Governor’s commitment to inclusive healthcare, noting that his administration has taken deliberate steps to ensure that vulnerable groups are not left behind.

Subscribe to our Telegram and YouTube Channels, and also join our WhatsApp Update Group.

Human Angle

Former CJ Makes Case for Children of Inmates

By Web News 409

By Mosope Kehinde

For the country to curb cases of criminality and reduce social vices, society has a duty to watch over vulnerable children, especially the children of inmates currently serving jail terms.

Former Chief Judge of Oyo State, retired Justice Badejoko Adeniji, made this known in Ibadan while speaking during a three-day boot camp organized by the Prisons Fellowship of Nigeria for over thirty children of inmates in Oyo State.

Retired Justice Adeniji, who explained that inmates’ children are vulnerable and likely to have criminal tendencies because of their background and upbringing, said it was important for well-to-do individuals or organizations to provide basic supports for them.

Also speaking, the Catholic Archbishop of Ibadan Arch-Diocese, Archbishop Gabriel Abegunrin stressed the need for Nigerians to invest in children whose either parents are serving jail terms, urging philanthropists to provide educational and psychological support to the children.

Reacting, the project coordinator, Reverend Kayode Oluyombo said the purpose of the free boot camp for the children who were between the ages of ten and eighteen was to allow them to feel a sense of belonging during the holiday.

Reverend Oluyombo, who said the project was organized simultaneously across 19 states in the country, noted that the children were selected from all the zones in Oyo State under the “Promise Path Project,” irrespective of religious affiliations.

Earlier in a welcome address, the chairman, Oyo State Prisons Fellowship of Nigeria, Prophet Boyede Sule identified the need for the government to do more to reduce the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria.

Subscribe to our Telegram and YouTube Channels also join our Whatsapp Update Group

Security

Agodi Correctional Centre Wants More Assistance for Inmates

By Web News 1251

By Blessing Adesanya

Expanding and adequately equipping Correctional Centres’ libraries will make learning more condusive for inmates.

 Deputy Controller of Corrections, DCC 1 in Charge of Welfare Unit Agodi Custodial Centre Ibadan, Mrs Oluwatosi Otubu representing the officer in charge, Deputy Controller of Corrections, Mr Ayodele Olusola, stated this while receiving some sets of scientific calculators from Non-governmental organization, NGO, Ibadan Descendants Union of Houston Texas in collaboration with the Centre for Gender, Health and Social Rehabilitation, based in Nigeria. 

Mrs Otubu, who expressed appreciation to the NGO, noted that the Centre for Gender, Health and Social Rehabilitation had been the major contributor to the educational well-being of the inmates by opening up an automated library fully equipped with books and computers in partnership with Nigeria Connect, an NGO based in Atlanta, Georgia.

She solicited further assistance from the nongovernmental organisation and the Ibadan Descendants Union of Houston Texas, as the government alone could not adequately cater for the needs of the inmates.

Delivering the items to the correctional centre, the President of the Ibadan Descendant Union, based in Texas Mrs Titilayo Sanusi, noted that the organization had earlier donated four laptops in support of the automated library project in the Correctional facility, assuring the Facility of their continuous support.

She added that the Association would not rest on its laurels but would continue to strengthen the HOPE initiatives of the Centre for Gender, Health and Social Rehabilitation at the Agodi Facility because proper education of the inmates would make them useful to their community.

 Mrs Sanusi explained that the association would work with its partner at the Centre for Gender, Health and Social Rehabilitation in Nigeria to provide more items to the health centre.

Earlier, during a December visit to the Correctional Centre by the Centre for Gender, Health and Social Rehabilitation, an official of the Ibadan Descendants Union of Houston Texas, the Medical Officers at the Health Clinic had complained about the inadequate medication at the Health Centre and sought for help, which the NGO promised to offer. 

Highlights of the programme included the touring of the female and the male sections, and the presentation of scientific calculators. 

Subscribe to our Telegram and YouTube Channels also join our Whatsapp Update Group

Religion

PFN Empowers Inmates in Ibadan

By Web News 976

By Blessing Adesanya

As part of efforts in empowering inmates to become responsible citizen, Prison Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN in partnership with a church abroad have donated ten laptops to the Agodi Correctional Custodial Centre to enhance learning. 

Delivering the items at the centre, the Chairman of the PFN, Prophet Boyede Sule said they were moved to complement the effort of the government towards educating the inmates.

He stressed that their impressive academic performance needed to be encouraged.

“We have discovered that over the years people will just come and bring food, eat food, after leaving this place and they get to the society if they are not empowered they will come back here.

So we felt the best thing is to educate and empower them so that when they move out, they will be useful to the society and to their families too”.

Prophet Boyede who was of the view that, if the inmates were not empowered with any skill, they could go back to their old ways when they were released, called for more support from Nigerian citizens and Corporate bodies in giving them a good life. 

Expressing gratitude for the kind gesture by PFN, Assistant Controller of Corrections (in-charge, Agodi Correctional Centre), Mr Samuel Ayodele, promised that, the items would judiciously be utilized by the inmates.

” In fact, today’s gesture is a very wonderful one because, in this part of the country, we hardly find people who will be helpful to us, so when we see people who come to show this kind of gesture, we feel appreciated and we are happy.

‘‘At the moment we have inmates who have written NECO and had brilliant results that, they cannot go out to further their education, this made us seek the assistance of an Open University.

One of their conditions was to get about 25 laptops and the prison fellowship of Nigeria has been able to donate ten laptops which they promised to bring the remaining 15 later in the year. ‘‘We say thank u’’.

Mr Ayodele who noted that the correctional centre needed more assistance enjoined Nigerians not to relent in their efforts in making life better, adding that, they should show more love and care for the inmates.

Subscribe to our Telegram and YouTubeChannels also join our Whatsapp Update Group

Judiciary

14 Inmates Recieve Pardon

By Web News 508

Adebola Ajayi

Fourteen inmates awaiting trial across various Correctional Centres in Ogun State, have been granted a pardon by the Chief Judge of the State, Justice Mosunmola Dipeolu who encouraged them to stay off crime as they reunite with Society.

Speaking at the maiden edition of the jail delivery exercise for 2023, held at the Ceremonial Court on Judiciary Complex, Kobape road, Abeokuta, Justice Dipeolu informed the pardoned inmates that, their data were already with the judiciary, thereby making it easier to locate and bring them to justice, whenever they were found wanting.

Justice Dipeolu while restating the government’s commitment towards the welfare of inmates and decongestion of Correctional Centres in the State, announced that another jail delivery exercise would come up in the second quarter of 2023.

In their separate contributions, the representatives of two Non-governmental Organizations, NGOs, that specialized in the welfare of inmates, Pastor Hezekiah Olujobi and Mr Taiwo Olukoyede appealed to the State government to sustain the kind gesture of regular decongestion of Correctional Centres. They promised to monitor and empower the newly pardoned inmates to make them better in Society.

In a remark, the Controller, Nigeria Correctional Centres, Ogun State Command, Mr Abdulrasheed Alimi  represented by his deputy Mr Mobolaji Adenaya commended efforts of the jail delivery committee set up by the government, for working assiduously to ensure that the recommended inmates regained their freedom

The beneficiaries of the jail delivery exercise who could not hide their joy appreciated the Chief Judge for the mercy shown to them. They pledged to distance themselves from acts capable of bringing them back to the custodial Centres.

Subscribe to our Telegram and YouTube Channels also join our Whatsapp Update Group

Judiciary

33 Inmates Regain Freedom From Correctional Centres

By Web News 455

Lagos State Chief Judge, Justice Kazeem Alogba, has freed 33 inmates from three out of five Custodial Centres of the Nigerian Correctional Services (NCS) in the State.

Eight of the inmates were released from Ikoyi custodial centre, 11 and 14 from Maximum and Medium Custodial centres respectively.

The inmates were pardoned at an open court session presided over by the Chief Judge at the premises of Justice Samuel Ilori Court House, Ogba.

Justice Alogba noted that the exercise was in line with the efforts by the Federal Government to decongest the prisons as stipulated ìn Section 6 of the1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, Chapter 40 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2005.

He said it was also pursuant to powers conferred on him to grant the inmates pardon pursuant to Section 1(1) of the Criminal Justice Release from Custody Special Provision Act.

Justice Alogba lamented that the prevalence of crimes in the society had been so horrendous for anybody to consider releasing anybody who had not been processed under the law.

He explained that the criteria used to determine those released were not based on sentiments but “were meticulously followed and scrutinized by the Justice Adenike Coker led decongestion committee.

Members of the committee also include Justices Omobola Okikiolu-Ighile, Yetunde Adesanya, Hakeem Oshodi, Busola Okunuga, Josephine Oyefeso among others.

Wahab Akinlade

Crime

Shootings In Benin As Awaiting Trial Inmates, Convicts Clash

By Web News 914

An uprising in one of the custodial centres in Edo State known as White House on Sapele Road on Thursday created panic among residents, as gunshots rent the air.

Commuters, drivers, passersby and business owners around the prison vicinity scampered for safety when they heard the gunshots around 1 pm.

Many thought, there was an ongoing jailbreak, as they took to their heels not wanting to be caught in the crossfire.

A woman, who works in a business centre close to the custodial centre and identified herself only as Jane, said she started to hear the gunshots around 1.30 pm.

“I started noticing that something was wrong in the prison with noise coming out from the facility. We thought it was a small issue until men in the facility started shooting and everyone nearby took to their heels,” she added.

Another source said he thought the prisoners attempted a jailbreak as they did during the #EndSARS protest last year.

The spokesperson for the custodial centre, Aminu Sulaiman, in a statement, said the situation had been brought under control.

The statement read, “Around 12.30 pm, some awaiting-trial inmates, especially the recaptured escapees, started a protest which led to a confrontation between them and the convicted inmates. Reinforcement was immediately mobilised from the state headquarters to enforcing law and order.

“The situation has been completely controlled and the custodial centre is calm. There was no escape of any inmates or death.

“Sister security agencies showed solidarity by drafting their men around the outer perimeter fence to compliment the correctional service armed squad personnel to ensure total security of the custodial centre.

“Meanwhile, the investigation into the incident has been instituted by the controller to unravel the immediate and remote causes of the disturbance.”

Adewumi Faniran/EverydayNewsNgr