Rotary Club, Others Secure Release Of 21 Inmates From Bauchi Custodial Centre

The Rotary Club of Bauchi Central, Heart That Truly Cares (HTTC), Alwadata Lifeline Initiative (ALLI) and ASHH Foundation, on Saturday, paid the fines to secure the release of 21 inmates from Bauchi Correctional Centre.

President of Rotary Club, Bauchi Central, Pam Dauda, said his Club collaborated with other Foundations to raise the amount needed to payment the fines as well as purchase items donated to the inmates.

Rotarian Dauda stressed that Rotary Club, as a humanitarian organization, collaborated with likeminded organisations out of its interest for the wellbeing and peace of the people, and desire to give them better life.

On her part, the Executive Director of HTTC, Josephine Ibinola said over N700, 000 was used to settle fines used to free the inmates, aside from other items brought for the inmates to make life in the Correctional Centre bearable for them.

“We discovered during our visits before today that some of the inmates can become better people outside the walls of the Correctional house, we then decided to pay the various fines for 21 of them,” Ibinola said.

She added that the collaboration was easier because all of them are Rotarians, so it was very easy for them to bond together in the service of humanity which she noted to be the cardinal service of Rotary Club all over the world.

Winifred Robinson, Executive Director of ALLI said her NGO contributed disposable sanitary pads for use by the female inmates considering they may find it difficult to get such pads during their monthly flow in their current condition.

She stressed that the gesture was part of their fundamental human rights despite being in a Correctional Centre, where movement and liberty are restricted.

Winifred added that as a female, the need for hygiene during the monthly flow cannot be overemphasized which informed the reason her NGO supported the initiative to visit the Centre.

The items donated to the inmates included copies of Qur’an, Bibles and other devotionals, eating plates, rubber buckets, mats, clothing, packets of seasonings, sanitary pads and food items.

Some of the freed inmates expressed appreciation to the groups for coming to their aid at the most precious time in their lives, saying that with the intervention, they would have been left to serve out their various sentences.