When Chinedu Obiora was approached by Archbishop S.K. Magxey of Victories Ministries, Nkpor, Anambra State sometime in 2008 to help him register a proposed university at the Nigeria University Commission, little did he know that the effort would land him in prison custody.
Obiora, who at the time was serving as a pastor with a church in Abuja, explained that Magxey commissioned him to procure a university licence and gave him some money running into N3.5 million over a period of time to facilitate the registration. Unknown to him (Obiora), a man identified as Dr. Abdullahi, to whom he was giving the money, was actually impersonating a dead official of the NUC. He gave him some documents which turned out to be fake. When Magxey found that he had been duped, he got the police to arrest Obiora, but Abdullahi absconded.
When the NUC got wind of the matter, it got both Magxey and Obiora arrested. Both of them were arraigned before an Abuja High Court and given stringent bail conditions which the latter could not meet. The court had asked for a Certificate of Occupancy as part of the bail conditions. But while the cleric was able to meet the bail requirements, Obiora could not, so he was remanded in Kuje Medium Prison, Abuja. Although his lawyer had approached the court for the bail conditions to be varied, and the court obliged by asking for a level 16 civil servant as surety. Obiora was not able to meet this either. He has spent two years and three months in prison custody. He is hoping that his lawyer might spring a miracle when the case comes up on October 18, 2010.
Many may have forgotten the men that were accused of involvement in the murder attempt on the Minister of Information and Communication, Prof. Dora Akunyili, when she was the Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control. The world has moved on since the incident, but for the accused, every day is a reminder of how their lives have taken a turn for the worse. One of the men facing trial for the murder attempt, Christopher Mba, presently residing at Kuje Prison, is a broken man. A drug seller at the popular Onitsha Bridgehead market, the prison has become his abode for about five years and his hope of breathing the air of freedom dims by the day.
Mba, who denied being a party to the plot to kill Akunyili, said he was arrested along with six other persons in 2004 and arraigned in court. They were discharged in 2005 but re-arrested by the State Security Service. They were granted bail and asked to report to the SSS office and were later re-arraigned before another court. He said that the judge granted bail to five of his co-accused, but refused to grant his bail application and that of one other co-accused. He appealed to Akunyili to intervene and save his future just as he queried the ‘law of equity and fairness‘ that gave freedom to the five accused persons but denied two others of the same privilege. Mba has filed an appeal, but in the meantime, he, like Obiora and other positive-minded inmates, is taking advantage of the academic classes organised for inmates by the Prison authorities.
Ten of the inmates were in the middle of a class when Saturday Punch visited them on Tuesday. They had been registered for the October/November WAEC examinations and were preparing seriously for their papers. Obiora, who wants to study Human Relations in the university, would be sitting for Mathematics, English, Economics, Government, Christian Religious Knowledge and Commerce. Mba plans to obtain a degree in Political Science, and he has registered for English, Mathematics, Government, Commerce, Economics, Literature in English, Christian Religious Knowledge and Agriculture.
Obiora stated that prison officials were giving them intensive classes every morning and evening. He added that the inmates needed textbooks in various subjects, noting that the ones they were using were given to them by prison officials, but were not adequate. He also appealed to well-meaning Nigerians and NGOs to come to their aid by providing professional teachers.
Mba explained that he was mentally prepared for the examination, but was limited by the prison environment. ”The prison officials are making good efforts to help us, but we need textbooks and professional teachers. I am sitting for the examination because I want to improve myself while here. I am not a criminal or a murderer, so I see this as an opportunity to add value to my life while waiting for my appeal to sail through,” he said.
The Deputy Controller of Prisons in charge of Kuje Prisons, Mohammed Hussein, explained that he encouraged the staff to start the education classes, noting that he did a similar thing when he was in charge of Kirikiri Prisons, Lagos.
He stated that the candidates‘ aptitude was encouraging, adding that officials of the National
Open University of Nigeria had been around to inspect facilities preparatory to establishing a study centre at the prisons.
Hussein, who took pride in what he called the low tension between inmates and wardens, attributed the tranquil environment to the mutual respect between the inmates and their keepers.
”This place is a model prison for other prison facilities in the country. You will observe that this place is clean and you cannot associate this place with the kind of odour in other prisons,” he said.
The officer in charge of welfare, Lissa Yusuf, a Superintendent of Prisons, stated that more than 30 students were being taught. He explained that the class needs items of furniture and textbooks, adding that he was about making a request to the Ministry of Education for assistance.
Narrating how the idea of coaching the inmates started, the Principal of the ‘school‘, Mr Paul Njoku, a Deputy Superintendent of Prisons, said it was God that laid it in the hearts of the NPS officials to initiate the classes. He said that the moment the idea was approved by the NPS leadership, a visit was made to WAEC, which sent some of its officials to the prison and lessons started in May this year.
”The teachers are using their textbooks to teach. We need chalks, because you can‘t ask them (inmates) to bring anything. If we get private individuals or NGOs to assist us in any way, we will be glad,” he said.
As our correspondent made to leave, a young inmate walked briskly to the chapel and sat down to read the Bible and to meditate. Perhaps, the presence of the divine added to the power of education and knowledge would change the lives of those sentenced to do time for their supposed crimes.
