Nigeria Content Online

Worried by the poor medical attention
given to prison inmates, a youth corps member presently serving in Ondo
State, Babatunde Ogundare, has constructed a model medical clinic where
inmates serving various jail terms at the Olokuta Maximum Prison, Akure
can be treated. The 12-bed clinic has two toilets, a consulting room,
doctor’s office, pharmacist’s office and a store, and is expected to be
a lifeline for prisoners at the Olokuta Maximum Prison which is
presently overcrowded.

While speaking at the commissioning
yesterday, Mr Babatunde, a lawyer serving with Homni Outlook, a partner
with MTN, said the clinic was built at a cost of about N2.9 million as
a Community Development Service project.

He said he was moved to build the
clinic when he discovered that the Medium security prison, which was
built to house 160 inmates, have been jampacked with about 560. Mr
Babatunde said the situation at the prison spurred him to build the
clinic to ensure that inmates have access to good medical facilities,
adding that the project was realised with the help of people who share
his vision.

“The foundation of this clinic was laid
on the 29th June, 2010 with 400 blocks. The take off cash was a
donation from a co-sponsor who shared this vision,” he said. “Since
government alone cannot do it, it is the collective duty of Nigerians
to rise up and do things that will transform Nigeria to a better place.
I discovered that the Olokuta maximum prison is over crowded, the
prisoners will be exposed to different kinds of diseases, hence the
need to give them hospital where they can be treated”.

He urged the state government to ensure
that the clinic is well equipped as its own contribution to the
project. “There were a lot of discouragement, disappointment and
unforeseen circumstances that has to do with cash, also the limited
time frame for my service year, but with the grace of God Almighty, the
clinic is a reality today,” he said.

Positive youth

The Deputy Comptroller of Nigeria
Prisons Service, Benjamin Bogunjoko tasked Nigerian youth to channel
their brains toward things that will bring rapid development to their
various communities and the nation at large.

“It is lamentable that most youths had
channeled their brains towards unprofitable and wasteful ventures like
cultism, kidnapping and other socio vices which had continued to affect
the nation’s development,” he said. He urged the youth to think less of
what the country can do for them and focus on what they can do for the
nation.

Mr Bogunjoko said the gesture was
unprecedented in the history of the country, saying the clinic will not
only improve the health of the inmates but also serve as a way of
treating inmates who fall sick while serving their jail terms.

“This is not a small achievement; it is a big one that must be
commended in all spheres. The young boy has done his part which I think
it will go down in the history of the Nigerian prison service,” he
said. The Ondo State coordinator of the National Youth Service Corps,
Jaiye Ojumu appealed to the state’s indigenes to always come to the aid
of corps members who want to embark on similar venture. He said it is
lamentable that notable indigenes of the state do not help corps
members doing community development service.