Obaseki partners NPS on construction of new prison, to relocate Sapele Road facility

…as State Controller apologises for erring personnel

Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has said the state is working with the Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) to build a new prison facility to enable the state command of NPS relocate its facility along Sapele Road area of Benin City.

The governor disclosed this when he received the new Controller of Prisons, Edo State Command, on a courtesy visit to the governor at the Government House in Benin City, the state capital.

Obaseki said the new prison facility will be sited outside the city centre, noting “The site for the facility has been acquired, the design for the building is ready, the state is comparing it with what was sent from the Headquarters of the Nigerian Prisons in Abuja before the project commences.”

He said the state will soon constitute the Board for Prerogative of Mercy as part of plans to decongest the prison facility in the state.

Responding to the governor’s request for the Command to produce personnel who recently manhandled a civilian in the state capital after an incident with one of its convoy, the Controller, Mr Joseph Usendiah, expressed the agency’s regret over the actions of its personnel and how badly the incident was managed.

Usendiah, who commended the governor for signing the Administration of Criminal Justice Law, said, “The step taken by the governor will assist effort in prison decongestion as there are 2,887 prison inmates of different categories in the state command.”

 He assured the governor of the State Command’s commitment to ensuring the sustenance of peace in the state.