About one hundred officers of the Nigeria Correctional Services from across the country are set to commence the first set of the DSP
Development Course at the newly established training college at Makera in Kebbi State.
Speaking at the official commencement of the training, the College Commandant, Hamisu Isa, said the school was initiated and set up by the former Controller General of the Service, Jafar Ahmed, when he realized that the service had a backlog of untrained staff and inadequate training schools.
He said, the school was established to embark on teaching new techniques on handling inmates.
“There is a new trend on how you handle criminals, in the past it used to be punity punishment. To ask one to break stones, to collect firewood, to go and cut grasses and at the end of the day when you discharge them they still go back to their normal life”.
According to him, government realised that, efforts were wasted by prioritizing the feeding criminals since they resort back to crime upon release hence necessitating the move to the new trend of handling criminals.
Isa said, the three months course will be conducted by officers not below the rank of Deputy Supritendants of Prisons and would also serves as requisite qualification for promotion of officers of the service.
The College Commandant warned against indiscipline by any of the trainee saying, a trainee can be suspended from the school if found wanting during the training period.
He commended the Kebbi state government for providing a conducive and befitting structures for the permanent site of the school in the state.
In a remark, the representative of the Kebbi State Governor, and Chief of Staff Government House, Alhaji Suleiman Muhammad Argungu, thanked the immediate past Controller General Nigeria Correctional Services for bringing the school to the state.
While congratulating the pioneers of the training school, the Chief of Staff hoped that, the knowledge to be acquired by them would be impacted on the inmates at their correctional centers.
The Acting Kebbi State Commandant, Nigeria Correctional Services, Richard Yashim, drew the attention of the trainees on the need to abide by the rules and regulations of the college during the period of the course.
Abdullahi Tukur
