Cleric Tasks Prison Inmates On Skills Acquisition

A London-based prison evangelist and founder of the Christian Given Ministry, Mr Chinedu Ogbenna has called on the inmates of Owerri Prisons to pursue a career while in the prison.

Speaking during a ministerial visit to the prison on Tuesday, Ogbenna, himself an ex-convict, said the only way the inmates could be more useful to themselves and the society after jail was to utilise the years in prison to acquire professional skills.

He said such skills would aid them to integrate easily in the society after their stay in the prison.

The Evangelist said he became an information technology expert during the eight years he spent in a Swedish prison.

He also advocated total renouncement of crime and other social evils to embrace Godly activities as another way to be integrated into the society after life in prison.

The evangelist called for prison decongestion, adding that a congested prison could cause an outbreak of diseases.

According to him, inmates who sincerely repent from their evil ways may be favored in the next prison decongestion.

He condemned same sex relationships practised in some Nigerian prisons and urged inmates in such practices to quite it.

Ogbenna, who had visited 20 Nigerian prisons since the inception of the prison visitation, said his mission was to visit all the prisons in the country and help to regain the confidence of the inmates.

He called on relevant authorities to ensure the speedy prosecution of awaiting trial inmates, adding that some of them could spend more time than their prison terms.

The evangelist said he was ready to assist in training the inmates in information technology, saying he needed financial support to execute the prison visitation.