By Francis Igata
ENUGU — A member of the Enugu State House of Assembly, Anthony Ogidi, representing Igbo-Eze North constituency, yesterday, slammed prisons authorities in the state, accusing them of collecting N50,000 from prison inmates to grant them access to mobile phones.

Ogidi made the accusation while contributing to an executive bill presented by the House Leader,Ike Ezugwu, for a Law to make provision for a procedure to be followed in criminal cases at the Enugu High Court.

Ezugwu said the bill when passed, will bring about efficiency in law practice in the state, take care of unlawful arrests, eliminate delayed justice and stop awaiting trial syndrome.

While frowning at the activities of prison authorities in the state,Ogidi said: ”Early this year, I received a call threatening my life. I contacted the Special Anti Robbery Squad, SARS, and deposed the telephone number which the person used in calling me to them. SARS traced the number and found out that the person who called was a prison inmate at the Enugu prison.

“The person is still there now at the prison. I reported the matter to the Controller of Prison Enugu. During investigation, I found out that prison officials collect N50,000 from inmates to grant them access to phones. There were over 2,000 phones in the prison now.”