Two new prison camps are to be established in the Ashanti region in 2017, the Ashanti Regional Commander of Prisons, Mr Lord Nii Boye Tagoe, has announced.
He said the two new camps would be located at Ejura and Kokofu and that the plans for the construction would start in the first quarter of the year.
The move, he said was part of efforts to decongest the prisons in the region as well as enable the service to expand its farming activities at Ejura as a way of providing food to feed inmates and raise income for the service.
Mr Tagoe made this known during an end of year of party for officers of the Ghana Prison Service in the Ashanti region in Kumasi.
The event brought together representatives of the various security services in the region, staff and management of prisons, prison officer’s wives and other stakeholders in relation with the prison service.
Amidst the provision of contemporary music and dancing, the personnel took turns to show their dancing skills to entertain their peers.
The Regional Commander stated that in the year 2016, the service recorded no negative incident in the region and attributed the feat to the hard work of the personnel in the region and urged them to continue working very hard to attain great results for the service and the nation as a whole.
He lauded the staff and management of their dedication and hard work which made the service to maintain its good image as well as maintain the trust of the inmates in them and reminded them that, they should not be complacent but rather continue to work extra hard to give the inmates what they need to reform.
Mr Tagoe said the service within the year 2016 with the help of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly and the Ultimate Group of Companies was able to replace all the 15 prison doors with steel to safeguard the inmates and the staff at all times.
He attributed the change of doors to the recommendations made by ministerial team after the attempted jail break two years ago.
The Regional Commander was full of praise for faith-based organisations, Non -Governmental Organisations, philanthropists and other security services for their support toward the operations of the prisons leading to the incident free recorded in the year 2016.
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He particularly commended the media for its support towards the development of the service and appealed for more support to improve the service and support for the operations of the service.
Mr Tagoe mentioned the development of deep cracks in the outer walls of the prison and congestion in the prison in the region as the major challenges confronting the service and urged all to support them to find lasting solution to the various challenges they were facing since the government alone could not handle them.
He appealed to all and sundry to embrace the “Effiase Project” initiated by the Prisons Council to help bring improvement into the prison such as decongestion, increase in support for the welfare and reformation of the inmates as well as improve the provision of the needed resources to the staff and management of the prison service.
The Chief Executive Officer of Ultimate Group of Companies, Mr William Addo, who chaired the function challenged the prison officers to strive to continue their dedication and commitment towards maintaining discipline in the service and in the prisons.
He urged the personnel to redouble their effort at ensuring that they train and support the upkeep and welfare of the inmates in their custody.
After the event, a Prison Assistant Staff, Seidu Okasha, was adjudged the overall winner after out dancing other senior prison officers and for his prize, he was presented with a parcel from the regional command.
Among the dignitaries who graced the occasion were COP Nathan Kofi Boakye, Ashanti Regional Commander of Police, Mr Semekor Fiadzor, Regional Fire Officer, Mr Paul Akwasi Ahiaphor, Regional Commander for the Ghana Revenue Authority, Customs Division, the Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr John Alexander Ackon and others.
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