House of Representatives Committee on Army has expressed concern over the state of Federal Prison in Oke Kura Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, during an oversight visit, saying something must be done urgently about it.
Sunday Marshal Katung, chairman of the committee and team leader of the House’s delegation to the prison, stated this while briefing newsmen in Ilorin, after inspection of the prison.
According to Katung, the delegation was in Ilorin to confirm the veracity of complaint by a member of the House, Abubakar Kannike, on the congestion and incessant face-off between members of Oke-Kura community and military men posted there for surveillance.
Kannike, a member representing Ilorin East/Ilorin South Constituency, moved a motion seeking an investigation into brutalisation of residents of Oke-Kura by the military deployed to the prison.
The leader delegation to Oke-Kura and Mandala Prisons agreed that Oke-Kura was too congested to host a prison yard.
Katung said: “We were sent here to gather facts, go back, analyse them and report. We have seen that there is congestion in Oke-Kura prison; the atmosphere is not conducive for peaceful coexistence between the prison inmate and member of the community.
“However, we have also seen that out of necessity there was military deployment and as well discovered that military have since been redeployed from the area, they are no longer there.”
The committee’s chairman who lamented that Oke-Kura Prison, which was built in 1914 and designed to accommodate 150 inmates now housed over 300 inmates, said, “We’ve inspected the prison and the conditions under which the inmates are kept is somewhat pathetic.
“You can imagine a prison built in 1914 to house about 150 inmates now taking over 300, and their condition is not anything you will want to behold with your eyes.”
He noted that the delegation would report back to the house with assurance that something would be done, saying, “When we analyse what has happened, we will make appropriate recommendations towards the prison reform.”
Katung, Kannike, Mahmud Ajaigbe, the Kwara State commissioner for information, and other members of the House committee later held a closed-door meeting with all heads of security agencies in the state.
However, Oke-Kura Prison, which is situated in the heartbeat of Ilorin, requires move as residents of the area insisted on the relocation of the prison from the area.
They complain that the facility poses serious health hazard to them as well as harassment and security challenges. Some of the residents who gathered around the prison’s entrance say that the facility built had constituted discomfort to them.
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