The command’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), DSC Anjorin Olanrewaju on Tuesday in Ibadan, said in his statement that The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Oyo State Command, has no fewer than 21 inmates in Oyo Custodial Centre, Agodi, Ibadan participating in the 2021 National Examination Council (NECO).

Olanrewaju said the participating students whose first subject would be Agricultural Practical in the 2021 NECO were already in examination mood.

According to Olanrewaju, the Controller of Corrections in Oyo State, Ailewon Noel, encouraged the 21 students to study hard, avoid panicking throughout the examination period and wished them the best in their papers.

Ailewon reassured the participants that success would be theirs since they had been preparing for the examination for a while.

The controller said imprisonment was never an excuse not to improve and develop oneself, adding that they could be whoever they wanted to be.

“Preparations have been ongoing for months towards getting the participants prepared for the examination.

“Various NGOs and the NYSC have been assisting the Nigerian Correctional Service by sending professional teachers to the Correctional Centre to prepare the students towards passing the examination.

“One of the 21 participating inmates is a female and registered to sit for Science subjects with four other male inmates while 14 students registered for Arts subjects.

“The remaining two registered for Commercial subjects,” Ailewon said.

He said some Awaiting Trial Inmates that were acquitted, that seized the opportunity to write and pass the exam in the past three years that the exercise started had since gained admission into various universities in Nigeria.

The controller said effort to register a National Open University (NOUN) Centre in the facility was at advanced stage and would soon be a reality.

He said having a NOUN Centre at the correction facility would enable successful inmates to further their studies to the Tertiary Level.

“This is in line with the mandate of the NCoS Act of 2019 that makes a sharp deviation from the punitive treatment of offenders to corrective and world best measures that will see them being reintegrated into the society,” he said. (NAN)