Federal Government is committed to the reformation and protection of rights and privileges of prison inmates.

Minister of Interior, Lieutenant-General Abdulrahman Dambazau said this while receiving the twenty-eighteen UNESCO Confucius Award for Literacy and Skills Acquisition won by the Nigeria Prisons Servicein Abuja.

Dambazau said the award was as the result of prisons reforms embarked upon by the current administration, saying they would ensure they assist the inmates who might have been passing through discrimination from people by ensuring they get jobs, get shops for those skilful and if possible, ensure they get husbands and wives.

Earlier, the Controller-General of Prisons, Ja’afaru Ahmed, had said specific occupation and literacy skills would continue to play vital roles in addressing acceptance of ex-convicts in the society.

Ahmed said the NPS programmes were aimed at providing quality service to the inmates, saying education often blended with vocational skills.

He said 465 inmates were currently undergoing various degree programmes in tertiary institutions while 23 were undergoing post-graduate courses.

“One is currently doing a doctor of philosophy programme outside the country.’’

“The main reason for skills acquisition is to enable the inmates look beyond white collar jobs after leaving the prison.

“Our work is to reform, rehabilitate and reintegrate the prisoners to the society. We believe this can be achieved through more hard work following the UNESCO award won by the service,“ he said.

Ahmed called on Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and philanthropists to assist inmates to acquire vocational skills “to become useful members of the society after their discharge from prisons’’.

He said NPS would ensure that inmates had quality vocational skills, saying it would also ensure that prisoners did not wait for white collar jobs after being educated.

On his part, Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, who spoke through Abbah Haladu, solicited for more study centres in prisons across the country.

He said collaboration among the National Open University of Nigeria, Nigerian Prisons Service and Ministry of Interior would win more awards

Vice Chancellor of National Open University of Nigeria, Abdallah Adamu, said the institution would provide opportunities for inmates without support to further their education after leaving the prison.