Gov. Umaru Bago of Niger has secured the release of 30 inmates in the Old and New Correctional Centres in Minna as parts of activities to commemorate his one year anniversary in office.
Bago made the announcement when he visited the correctional centres to donates drugs and food items to inmates as parts of the anniversary activities on Tuesday in Minna.
The governor, represented by Alh. Abubakar Usman, Secretary to State Government, said that the Bago-led administration had paid the fines of the inmate to secure their freedom.
“These people are now free because their fines have paid, considering that their offense were minors. Approval had also been given for payment of fine for another set of 100 inmates,” he said.
Bago said that the donation of items such as malaria drugs, bags of rice, beans, maize among others to the correctional centres was to cushion the economic hardship.
He called on the freed inmates to be of good character as they return to the society.
The governor added that they would be empowered with skills to make them productive and contribute meaningfully to the society.
In a related development, the state government also said that plans were underway to engage orphans on various skills acquisition programmes to make them self-reliant.
Hajiya Fatima Bago, Wife of Niger Governor stated this when she visited the state orphanage as part of activities to mark the one year anniversary of Bago’s administration in Minna.
She charged the management of the orphanage to make the place a home for the little children devoid of bad influence.
“This is to ensure that the little innocent children brought to the orphanage are not influenced negatively by some bad ones among them”.
She pointed out that the state government has great plans to enhance the well-being and development of children across the state.
According to her, this is just the beginning, “we have so much plans for the children in the state, the best days are ahead for them.
Bago said that the state’s Ministry of Women Affairs would work with the orphanage to renovate part of the facility gutted by fire.
Earlier, Hajiya Titi Aura, Commissioner for Women Affairs, said the visit of the governor’s wife was a demonstration of her love for orphans and other vulnerable children in the state.
She said that there were 42 orphans presently in the orphanage with majority of them enrolled in private schools.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the wife of the governor also donated items such as noodles, rice, beans, spaghetti, soft drinks, oil, detergent, biscuits, salt, wrappers and hospital consumables to the orphanage. (NAN)
