The Ilorin Emirate community has called on the federal government to expand and reinforce the Mandala Prison located in the outskirts of Ilorin to accommodate the main prison yard in Ilorin metropolis.

The call, according to the National President of Ilorin Emirate Descendants' Progressive Union (IEDPU), Alhaji Abdulhamid Adi, was informed by the recent increase in attacks on prisons across the country.

"This may not be unconnected with the dilapidated nature of some of the prison yards due to age," he said during the union's conference in Ilorin.

Daily Trust reports that security was recently beefed up at Oke Kura Prison in Ilorin with barricades created along the area while motorists were subjected to thorough search.

"It is in the light of this that we appeal to the federal government to expand and reinforce the Mandala Prison to enable it accommodate all the inmates in the prison yard in Ilorin and therefore return the present site to the community for another use," Adi said.

Speaking further, the IEDPU president appealed to the federal government to halt the plan to remove the Air Force base in Ilorin, saying the city had what it takes to continually host the base.

"We have a good airport and not too busy to accommodate the Air force aerial activities as well as good accommodation for her officers and men.

Secondly, the presence of the base in the state increases the sustainability of peace in the state," he said.