Female inmate bags NOUN’s best graduating student prize

By Akinwande Soji-Ojo

A female inmate of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS), Lagos State Command, Chinyere Okike, has emerged as the best graduating student of the Peace and Conflict Resolution department, National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).

Okike bagged a second-class upper degree in the course, according to a statement issued on Sunday by the Command’s Public Relations Officer, CSC Olarotimi Oladokun.

Apart from Okike, a male inmate, Alegbe Afolabi, was awarded an MSc in Peace and Conflict Resolution.

Speaking during the presentation of the Bachelor of Science certificate to eight graduands from the Lagos State Command, the state Controller of Correctional Service, Adewale Francis Adebisi, urged them to imbibe the virtues of education.

In his vote of thanks, one of the graduating inmates, Nweke Chibueze, thanked the Controller General, Haliru Nababa, and the Vice Chancellor of NOUN for the opportunity.

He, however, pleaded for clemency for the graduating students so that they can be freed to give their quota to the country’s development.

According to him, incarceration should not stop them from dreaming, telling the other inmates to use the “opportunity available while in detention to better their lives so that when they are released, they can contribute positively to the society.”