Controller-General of Nigerian Prisons Service, Zakari Ohinoyi Ibrahim

Prisons command in Enugu moves to reclaim borstal.

The Enugu State Command of Nigeria Prisons Service has begun moves to re-possess its reformatory located at Hilltop, Ngwo in the state capital.
The command acquired the land on which the reformatory was built in 1933, operated it till the civil war and abandoned it.
The social welfare department of the old East Central State also operated it for sometime before it was abandoned.
The land has been encroached on with buildings already erected in parts of the premises by persons suspected to be members of the Ngwo community.
Reports said residential quarters built for the members of staff of the reformatory have been taken over by staff of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.
Similarly, the classrooms used by the then inmates have  been taken over by a school.
The Controller of the command, Chris Ntewo, said the prisons authority was ready to return to the place to re-establish its borstal.
Ntewo said the prisons authority had borstals in Kaduna and Abeokuta but none in the South-East and South-South regions.
He lamented that young people involved in criminal activities had to be remanded in prison custody with hardened criminals because of the non-existence of a borstal in the area.
The controller said when established, the borstal could provide a respite for the two zones to reform delinquent children.
When approached on the encroachment, the Esaa of Ngwo Asaa, Igwe Innocent Ayalogu, said the community was not involved in the encroachment.
``Anybody encroaching on that land is on his or her own. The land belongs to the Nigeria Prisons Service. We did not send anybody there,?? he said.
A member of the NSCDC, who occupies one of the quarters, also said he was officially allocated the place by the Enugu command of the corps.
A female teacher in the school occupying part of the premises also said it was rented to them by a state government agency with the proviso to vacate whenever the government needed the place.