Inmate Graduates With Second Class Upper From National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN)

By Damilare Adeleye

An inmate confined in Kuje Custodial Centre of Nigerian Correctional Service identified as Mr Chinwendu Heart has bagged a Second Class Upper degree in Theological Studies from the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).

The information was made known in a statement by the FCT Correctional Centre Command's Public Relations Officer, Mr Chukwuedo Humphrey, on Wednesday, in Abuja.

He said the Librarian of the university, Dr Angela Okpala, who presented the certificate on Tuesday, urged the graduate to be a good ambassador of the university as well as the correctional service.

Mr Ibrahim Shehu, the officer in charge of Kuje Custodial Centre said that the inmate had shown an exemplary character over time.

He said, “The inmate has always been diligent with his studies and also lived an exemplary life in custody.”

Shehu urged other inmates to use the opportunity of the free education from NOUN and improve themselves, saying that education was the bedrock of human development.

Meanwhile, the graduand, Heart, who expressed happiness, said he had come into the Kuje Custodial centre without a secondary school certificate.

He said that with the encouragement of the staff, he had now got a University degree and that he hoped to utilise the offer of NOUN and study to get a PhD.

He also admonished other inmates to engage themselves in these regimes of reform in the custodial centre instead of being idle and giving in to social vices.