Date: 2018-02-28

Worried by the plight of children at the Nigeria Prison Service Borstal Training Institution, Ilorin, the Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Dr. Ali Ahmad says it is incumbent on every stakeholder to ensure that the children are well rehabilitated and reintegrated back to the society.

Such move, according to Ahmad, would create sense of belonging for the affected youth and further provide them with zeal to come out of the institute and contribute meaningfully to the development of their various localities.

The Speaker, in a press release issued by his Special Assistant on Media, Shuaib Abdulkadir stated this while receiving the Training Institute's Principal , Controller Folashade Akinwale and top management staff in his office recently.

He commended Federal Government's foresight in establishing the juvenile arm of the prison specifically to cater for children's rehabilitation.

Ahmad, however, noted that it is expedient that all hands are on deck to provide adequate support to the center "so that they can be useful to the state and Nigeria at large".

"We have an obligation to support the training institute, not because the Principal hails from Kwara or the first time a Kwaran will head the place, but because the correctional institution is cited in the state and we have our children at the center"

"We will do everything possible to come to the institution's aid financially, morally, psychologically and materially in order to ensure that the affected children do not come out empty handed and further create problems for the society", he added.

The Speaker maintained that the Controller's expertise and experience which had enabled her to serve in various capacities across the country was. greatly required to reposition the juvenile home so that the children could be useful to their parents, Kwara and the country.

Earlier, the Principal, Controller Folashade Akinwale had requested for the Speaker, public office holders and spirited individuals' support to improve the center, stressing that it was their primary objective to ensure that the children do not in the future end in prisons.

Akinwale added that security is everybody's business, therefore it is imperative to collectively join forces and cater for them before they become full fledged criminals.

She explained that they are exposed to various skills acquisition programmes and vocations such as carpentry, tailoring, sports aside their studies and professional psychologists who counsel them.