Pecohub An insider in the Awka correctional facility in Anambra State, has accused Innocent Amaechi, the Deputy Controller of Corrections (DCC) in charge of the facility, of extortion and abuse of office.
On condition of anonymity, the source revealed that Amaechi and Chika Nweke, an Assistant Superintendent of Corrections (ASC), work in tandem to charge inmates as much as N200,000 for access to privileged cells.
Those who cannot afford this sum are crammed into general population cells where up to 60 inmates sleep in the same room.
Visits, this source said, are also billed. When people visit inmates, the prison officials charge N2,000 — a sum the inmates pay by themselves or have the visitor pay for them.
Also, they claimed that when inmates get money for upkeep, the welfare department collects up to 10% from them.
“For a facility originally designed to accommodate 250 inmates, we have well above 650 inmates here. The major problem we are facing is overcrowding,” this source said.
“Amaechi has since turned the agony of inmates into a very prosperous business. Each cell from A to D has individual lockup numbers not less than 55 inmates, excluding C1 to C3 where convicts are Leo’s. There, the number of inmates are up to 65 per cell.
“The officer-in-charge has what he calls a ‘Big man cell’ or ‘Oga cell’ where he locks just a little over 12 inmates without minding the plights of other inmates struggling to see space to [lie down] on the floor to sleep.”
The source went further to explain that to get into this ‘Oga cell’, one had to pay N200,000.
“Once you pay N200,000 to the officer-in-charge, you would get into D1, which is what they call ‘Oga Cell’,” they added.
“With arrogance and impunity, DCC Innocent Amaechi keeps both awaiting trial inmates and convicts together in the same cell in order to make money. There is an inmate who is serving a life sentence in that cell.
“There, phones and illicit drugs are approved for the DCC’s boys.”
This source also claimed that the welfare department charges the inmates an inflated cost for calls, N100,000 per bed, and also collects N10,000 per month from each cell.
They explained that there are 13 cells, and each cell has a provost. These provosts all remit N10,000 each, totalling N130,000, to the prison officials every month as an illegal levy.
On Saturday, press men called Jane Osuji, spokesperson for the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS).
After listening to the details, Osuji said, “These allegations are ones we don’t take lightly. We will investigate but we wouldn’t know who to respond to when the complainant is anonymous.
“The position of the NCoS is that we don’t take such with kid gloves. It undermines the essence of putting people in incarceration in the first place.
“I am not aware of any petition from the correctional facility. Now that I am aware, I am going to find out. I have heard and I will investigate.”
It is not the first time officials in the correctional facility in Awka have been accused of questionable practices.
*FIJ*
