The Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) has dismissed its official for trafficking illicit drugs in the Prison Yard.
Francis Enorbore, Public Relations Officer of the Service, made this known in a statement on Monday in Abuja, according to NAN.
Enorbore named the affected officer as Umar Adamu, Prison Assistant 1. Adamu was found guilty of trafficking illicit items such as Indian hemp (cannabis) and other intoxicants into the prison for inmates.
He said that the Controller General of Prisons, Ja’afaru Ahmed, had approved the recommendations of the Zone ‘C’ disciplinary committee for the officer’s dismissal.
“This followed the recommendation of the Zonal Disciplinary Committee that found the officer guilty of secreting illicit items such as Indian hemp (cannabis) and other intoxicants into the prison for inmates.
“This is part of a concerted effort by the administration to continue to maintain discipline and ensure that mal-adjusted inmates in Prison custody are only handled by those with the required rectitude to do so,” Enorbore said.
NPS spokesperson said that exposing the inmates to hard drugs was an anathema to the reformation goal of the Prisons Service.
According to him, that does not only precipitate health complications but also constitutes a security risk to innocent lives in and around the prison.
Enorbore, relating the message from the Controller General of Prisons (CGP), said any official caught in such an ignoble act will be shown the way out of the Service as they have no business being in a character reformation agency.
And the CGP, he said, assured the public that “the management of the NPS remains irrevocably committed to sustaining the peace and calm now existing in prisons across the country in order to enhance reformation and rehabilitation of offenders in prisons custody”.
This is not the first time some prison official would be dismissed for selling illicit drugs to the prisoners. In September 2018, three officials were dismissed for smuggling cannabis (or Marijuana) into the Kaduna Central Prison.
The CGP had said that access to cannabis and intoxicants had an impact on the escapes and jailbreaks record in the past.
