A female Prisons staff attached to Kirikiri female prisons, Lagos has been dismissed from the service for smuggling alcoholic drinks into the prison yard. The dismissal letter signed on behalf of the Controller-General of Prisons by the officer-in-charge of discipline, DCP Agun Olatunji Esq, stated that the staff was found guilty of negative activities which borders on trafficking, an act that contravenes the enabling provisions of Sections 14 (i) (a) and Section 82 (n) of Prisons Act Cap P.29 LFN 2004 and punishable under Sections 14 (i) (g) and Section 83 of same Act.
Trafficking, in prisons parlance, is the act of smuggling prohibited item(s) or unauthorized information into or out of the prison yard. The offence is usually viewed seriously because of its potential threat to security.
Cases of inmates making illegal phone calls from their cells, organising jail breaks, having access to weapons, escapes, etc are all traced to trafficking sometimes perpetrated by staff and this has often been a source of embarrassment not only to the Service but the nation at large. Such compromising acts no doubt, do not augur well for the security of a custodial institution like the Prisons Service and also put the lives of innocent staff and inmates in serious danger.
The arrest of the wardress is certainly an indication of the dawn of a new era in prison management in Nigeria and a justification of the recent mass re-deployment of officers and men nationwide to strengthen security.
It should be recalled that the Controller General of Prisons, Ja’afaru Ahmed in his maiden address to officers and men of the Nigerian Prisons Service decried the appalling state of indiscipline in the System which, more often than not, drags the reputation of the Prisons Service to public ridicule.
He therefore vowed to restore discipline in the Service as a convenient entry point towards making the prisons a secured and true reformation centre, warning that those that lack the moral strength to impact positive values on offenders in custody should have no business being prisons officers.
The staff is to hand over all government properties including her uniform and Service Identification Card to authority before leaving.
