Abakaliki – The Comptroller of the Nigeria Prisons Service in Ebonyi, Mrs Emilia Oputa, has said that the service conducts pregnancy tests on female inmates before taking them in.

Oputa in Abakaliki on Wednesday said that no female inmate was impregnated by prison officials or male inmates as insinuated in some quarters.

She said that such reports were false, going by her experience as the officer in charge of female inmates at the Kirikiri Maximum Prisons in Lagos previously.

“I was in that position for more than two years and can authoritatively inform you that some of the female inmates come into prison custody with pregnancy.

“They are not aware of such development most times and during their incarceration, the pregnancy signs start manifesting.

“When this development manifests, people start insinuating that they were impregnated by prison staff or male inmates,” she said.

Oputa, however, decried the shortage of test kits for pregnancy which she said had hindered its performance.

The comptroller solicited provision of such items from governments, non-governmental agencies and well-meaning individuals.

“We want to ensure that families and relations of female inmates do not come up with the notion that their wards got pregnant in prison custody,” she said.

She noted that with the way the prison environment was structured, female inmates could not get pregnant either by staff or male inmates.

“The female inmates have their own enclave that is far apart from the males and even when the former have dates in courts, they are escorted by more than three guards.

“There is no way the guards would connive with male and female inmates to conduct the sexual act,” she said.

Oputa called on the public, especially members of the press, to collaborate with the prison service to effectively discharge its duties to the society.