caregivers and visitors to the prison, when a
Lagos based Human Right Advocacy Group
'Crusade for Justice' (CFJ) recently donated
drugs and household items to the prisons.
The event, which revealed the despicable state
of the reformatory centre, also provided the
opportunity to highlight the impending dangers
in the clinic located in the prison compound that
is meant to attend to ailing inmates.
Apart from the high number of inmates, who
are supposed to use the clinic, (over 1000
inmates) the clinic received drugs last from the
government eight months ago.
The medical doctor of the prisons, Dr. Edward
Hemeson, who expressed worries over the
neglect and abandonment of the clinic by the
government and humanitarian agencies, called
for an urgent intervention to salvage the
situation.
He said, "We are now more of miracle workers
that medical workers. Government has not sent
us drugs since over eight months. We only get
relief from few individuals and donor agencies,
which is not enough to take care of the medical
needs of the inmates, who come up with one
form of sickness or the other on daily basis.
During the visit, the team spoke with over 40
inmates, many of them awaiting trial. In the list
were a man, who has been awaiting trial since
2004, and a 41-year-old inmate, who was
brought into the prison when he was 29 years in
2003.
