Female prisoner, Okike Chinyere, emerges best graduating student at Open University

A female prisoner at the Nigerian Correctional Service, Lagos State Command, Okike Chinyere, won the star prize of the best graduating student at the Department of Peace and Conflict Resolution, National Open University (NOUN). The Correctional Service, Lagos State Command, in a statement indicated that Okike Chinyere graduated with a second-class upper degree.

Moreover, a male inmate, Alegbe Afolabi, graduated from the postgraduate school with MSc in Peace and Conflict Resolution.

Making presentation of the Bachelor of Science degree certificate to eight graduating students from the Lagos State Command, the Controller of Correctional Service, Adewale Francis Adebisi, told the graduates to live by the values of the education they have gained while in incarceration.

Adebisi stated that incarceration should not stop the graduating students from attaining their dreams, encouraging them 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.”

One of the graduating students, Nweke Chibueze, on behalf of others, thanked the Controller General, Haliru Nababa, and the Vice-Chancellor of NOUN for granting them the opportunity to improve themselves from the facility.  The inmate appealed for clemency for the graduating students to regain freedom and contribute their quota to the country’s development.