Six HIV, nine tuberculosis carriers in Ebonyi prison, says govt
Six HIV, nine tuberculosis carriers in Ebonyi prison, says govt
The Ebonyi State Government says it has uncovered six inmates with Human Imuno-Deficiency Virus and nine others with tuberculosis at the Abakaliki Correctional Centre.
The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in the state, Ben Odo, disclosed this on Saturday during a media chat/account of stewardship by exco members held at the Old Government House in Abakaliki, the state capital.
This, he said, was part of activities to mark Nigeria’s 63rd independence anniversary, 27 years of Ebonyi State’s creation and 152 days of Governor Francis Nwifuru in office.
Sunday PUNCH reports that the correctional centre houses no fewer than 1,336 inmates currently.
According to him, the findings were made in June when he alongside other staff of the ministry visited the Abakaliki and Afikpo Correctional Centres.
He stated, “When we visited the Abakaliki Prison, we were shock to our bones. We saw that the correction centre built to house 387 inmates now houses 1,336 inmates. And in one of the rooms, I found 126 inmates. Out of the 1,336 inmates, we did our investigation to discover that some of them have illnesses.
“As a matter of fact, nine have contagious tuberculosis, five were medically sick and six have HIV and were sharing just one room with other inmates. So, from June to date, we have successfully received 128 case files from the police and the court; and out of these cases, we were able to file 75 cases at the High Court, among which 28 criminal cases have been concluded.”
Credit: Punch Newspaper
