Polycarp Sola -Abakaliki
The member representing Ikwo/Ezza Federal Constituency in Ebonyi State and the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Reformatory Institutions, Hon. Chinedu Ogah, have commissioned a National Open University (NOU) campus for inmates in Abakaliki Correctional Center.
The lawmaker also gave out free drugs, food items, and cash sums of money to improve the health and welfare of inmates while promising to renovate dilapidated infrastructure within the center and make it conducive to human habitation.
Hon. Ogah, who commissioned the project as part of events marking his 48th birthday anniversary, said that he was moved into carrying out the project to support the education of inmates as well as to give them hope of reformation as well as a better life at the end of their jail term.
“This is in support of the education of the inmates, to show them that hope is not lost and they can still have access to education while they are serving jail terms.
“That is why we deemed it necessary to establish a National Open University Campus in the correctional center in Abakaliki.” Ogah said.
He further disclosed his engagements with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which has promised to commence its outreach campaigns to inmates in the Abakaliki correctional center.
During the visit, a renown philanthropist and a friend of the lawmaker, Chief Emeka Ogazi, pledged to support the newly commissioned National Open University Campus, built by the lawmaker with 24 computers to advance the learning process for inmates.
However, Hon. Ogah did not hesitate to caution the inmates who have been found guilty of one or two crimes to seek true reformation and repentance, while urging those who perhaps have been wrongly accused and sentenced to accept their fate and see it as a lesson of life.
Eyewitness Reports also gathered that the lawmaker had visited the less privileged persons within the state capital, the motherless homes, and the old people’s homes to distribute food items and cash sums of money to kick off a 7-day activity for his 48th birthday anniversary.