Comptroller of the Nigeria Prisons Service in Ebonyi, Emilia Oputa, has said the service conducts pregnancy tests on female inmates before taking them in.

Oputa said no female inmate was impregnated by prison officials or male inmates as insinuated in some quarters.

She said such reports were false, going by her experience as the officer in charge of female inmates at the Kirikiri Maximum Prisons in Lagos previously.

Oputa, however, decried the shortage of test kits for pregnancy which she said had hindered its performance.

The comptroller solicited provision of such items from governments, non-governmental agencies and well-meaning individuals.

She noted that with the way the prison environment was structured, female inmates could not get pregnant either by staff or male inmates.

“The female inmates have their own enclave that is far apart from the males and even when the former have dates in courts, they are escorted by more than three guards. “There is no way the guards would connive with male and female inmates to conduct the sexual act,” she said.

Oputa called on the public, especially members of the press, to collaborate with the prison service to effectively discharge its duties to the society.