Obi Pays N4.7m NECO Fees For 148 Correctional Centre Inmates

The 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, has paid N4,741,400 covering fees for 148 inmates in Correctional Centres in Anambra State who sat for the National Examination Council (NECO) this year.

He gave a cheque covering the amount to the NECO co-ordinator in Anambra State, Dr (Mrs) Emilia Njoku at the state secretariat of the council in Awka, yesterday.

Obi said, a group of people who visited him in his Onitsha residence shortly before the commencement of the NECO exams, had told him that inmates of Correctional Centres in the state qualified to write the examination were finding it difficult to participate due to a lack of funds to pay the necessary fees and other logistics.

The former Anambra State governor said that he had immediately written to the NECO management and assured them that he would pay for the fees needed for all the inmates to write the examinations.

“Correctional Centres are supposed to be rehabilitation centres and providing the inmates opportunities to acquire education is part of the critical ways of rehabilitating them,” Obi said.

Obi added that when he alerted his group of friends in the United States of America, they promised that they would contribute to sustain the payment of NECO fees for inmates in Correctional Centres in the state who would want to write the examination every year.

Expressing gratitude to Obi, the state NECO co-ordinator, Dr Njoku said the visit and gesture came to her as a huge surprise.

She expressed gratitude to the former LP presidential candidate for helping the prison inmates.

Meanwhile, Obi had, on the night of the previous day, donated N15 million to the School of Nursing and Health Science, Borromeo, Nkpor, Idemili-North local government area of Anambra State to assist the institution in continuing to improve its infrastructure.

He had emphasised that nursing services were critical for the improvement of the well-being of humanity, describing nurses as critical health professionals globally.