Some 18 inmates have successfully graduated from the National Open University, Corrections Special Study Centres, the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) has said.
This is contained in a statement issued on Thursday in Abuja by the NCoS public relations officer (SPRO), Controller of Corrections, Mr Francis Enobore, who said that the inmates graduated with various degree certificates.
Enobore quoted the acting. comptroller general, NcoS, Mr John Mrabure, as congratulating the graduands and charged them to see their educational advancement as a stepping stone to a brighter future.
Mrabure urged them to shun anti-social behaviours capable of tainting the new course of positive life they have chosen for themselves and be good ambassadors of both the Correctional Service and NOUN.
The SPRO said that successful graduands include one inmate from the Medium Security Custodial Centre Awka, Anambra state, six from the Maximum-Security Custodial Centre Enugu.
“Six inmates from the Kirikiri Maximum Security Custodial Centre, Lagos State, four from Medium Security Custodial Centre, Kuje and one inmate from Maximum Security Custodial Centre, Port Harcourt-Rivers state.
“A total of 3,000 inmates are currently running different degree Programmes with the NOUN while 50 are undergoing National Certificates in Education (NCE) at Yewa College of Education, Ogun state.
“Presently the Service has 12 Special Study Centres in different Custodial facilities across the country, “he said.
In 2014, the best graduating student of NOUN was an inmate in Maximum Security Custodial Centre, Enugu and the feat was repeated in 2018 by another inmate in the same Custodial Centre.
Since the inception of the collaboration between the Service and NOUN, a total of 36 inmates have graduated in different fields of study such as Conflict and Peace Resolution, Political Science, Sociology, Guidance and counseling, among others.