The Public Relations Officer of the Nigerian Prison Service, DCP Enobore Francis, has revealed why some prison inmates are given preferential treatment or VIP treatment while the rest of the inmates are treated very badly. He stated that the prison is a reform system which belongs to all Nigerians.
Speaking with Daily Trust newspaper, he said that the inmates separation was actually based on the fact that some of them were of elites in society and that their lives could be endangered if put in the same cells with the general population and so for their own life preservation, the Prison Service came up with the VIP system.
Enobore said, “The VIP system is derived from profiling and is designed to safeguard the lives of those prisoners. If you throw these prisoners along with other inmates, you may open the cell in the morning and find them dead. How do you explain that?”
“We want to enlighten Nigerians that the prison is not meant to punish people, the punishment ends with the judge’s pronouncement, thereafter correction begins.
“Members of the public should feel like co-owners of the correctional system because it is funded with tax-payer’s money and is designed to safeguard the society,” he said.
He further explained that the reason why prison attacks have been curtailed in the last few months was due to the fact that the Prison Service has put certain measures in place which includes improved collaboration with other security agencies to help prevent further prison attacks.
