“If I’m elected president, I’ll reform prisons,” says Chris Imumolen of Accord

Professor Christopher Imumolen of the Accord Party (AP) claimed that if elected president in 2023, his 25 executive orders would include significant prison reforms.

The youngest candidate for president said that the change was necessary because jails no longer help people change their behaviour and become law-abiding citizens.

On Boxing Day in Abuja, Imumolen appeared as a guest on the well-liked breakfast programme “Brekete Family” of Human Rights Radio and TV.

He criticised the inhumane treatment that both convicted and innocent prisoners experience in the nation’s jail facilities.

“I’ve had the chance to observe how our captives live in these prisons. And those are inhumane circumstances, to be honest.

“As a social entrepreneur, my business has required me to assist in the release of more than 200 convicts. Regardless of whether they committed crimes or not, the conditions in which our inmates are housed are inhumane.

“Prisons are supposed to be locations where deviants’ or criminals’ personalities are reshaped and reintegrated into society after they have to pay for their misdeeds.”

However, due to their design, our prisons neither reform nor change. Instead, they make inmates worse than they were before being locked up.

“The situation in the country is so horrible that when someone who is not already a criminal enters prison, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, he quickly develops into a full-fledged criminal.”

“The prison is meant to be a place where a person’s comfort is taken away and where his freedom to do certain things is limited.”

But it must not be a location where someone’s life is taken. The current administration of our prisons results in the literal taking of lives.

“If I win the popular vote to become the president of Nigeria the next year, my government will declare an emergency in that sector,” Imumolen continued.