The National Prisons Council has set up a fact-finding committee to investigate circumstances that led to mutiny at the Kumasi Central Prisons on Wednesday night.
[contextly_sidebar id=”PjLqb4OHxYAH7eaeRrJft9sj7PCe8HHE”]This was after some inmates tried to escape following a fire out break at the prison.
Even though the Ghana National Fire Service is still investigating the cause of the fire, some prison officials suspect it was a ploy by inmates to escape.
Speaking to Citi News after visiting the Kumasi Central prison, Chairman of the Prisons Council, Reverend Stephen Wengam said the Committee will also give opportunity to inmates to raise any concerns they have.
He said “I actually reprimanded them and told them that what they have done is criminal. I also told them that they could be arraign before court and charged, so they must cooperate with the fact finding committee so that we can get to know the culprits and the appropriate action taken against them.”
He added that, “some few issues came up which needed attention because we also need to pay attention to their concerns especially, find out some of the things that might have sparked up this whole thing.”
He added that the committee will submit its report to the Council within three weeks and “we will discuss it and make recommendations to government.”
Reverend Wengam also appealed to corporate institutions to come to the aid of the Kumasi Central Prison following the massive destruction that took place last Wednesday.
He lamented that “we are back to negative zero; negative zero because the place was in deplorable state already and with the little that we had it has been destroyed during the revolt.”
“That is why we are appealing to corporate Ghana, NGOs religious bodies to come on board to partner with us to raise resources to expand the prison facilities over there and to make our prisoners leave a decent live, not all of them are criminals and even if they are we owe it to transform them so that when they come out they can become better citizens,” he added.
Don’t dismiss the prisoners – Emile Short
Meanwhile, a former Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) Justice Emile Short, is asking government to take particular interest in the grievances of the inmates at the Kumasi Central prisons, explaining it will ultimately forestall future occurrences.
“We have a problem with almost all the prisons. There are too many people in the prisons and sometimes you will have three or four or five times the number that the prison is suppose to contain. People who have been there have also spoken about the lack of proper nutrition, health facilities and so on, so there are a lot of other issues which are affecting prisons in the country.”
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By: Godwin Allotey Akweiteh/citifmonline.com/Ghana