By Daud Olatunji

ABEOKUTA — SIXTY prison inmates of the old Abeokuta Prison, Ibara, Ogun State, who yesterday bagged the Nigerian Certificate in Education, NCE,  from the Yewa Central College of Education, Abeokuta, Ibara Prison Centre, have expressed their eagerness to re-integrate into the society.

The best graduating student, Akinwale Ogunbiyi, who read Social Studies/Economics, said he was imprisoned for alleged robbery which occurred in the company where he worked, in 2006.

He said one of his friends was later identified as one of the robbers that attacked the company, but the alleged friend absconded, and he was arrested and later charged with armed robbery.

He said he spent 10 years and six months in the prison before he was granted amnesty by the state governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, last November.

Talking about his new status as an NCE graduate, Ogunbiyi said he would like to practise as a teacher, and at the same time engage in barbing, a skill he also learnt in prison.

He said: “While I will say going to prison was not a palatable experience, I will say that I thank God that I had been pardoned by the Ogun State governor.

“As an NCE holder, I will like to go into teaching, and in the evening when I return from the school, I will engage in barbing for men. That is the skill I acquired in prison.”

Another graduating student, Adedeji Taiwo, who also read the same course with Ogunbiyi, was sentenced to death in Oyo State in 1995 also for armed robbery, but he said it was later commuted to life sentence.

He said he is married with four children. He said: ”I was selling bags of rice and beans in Ibadan until bad friends introduced me into armed robbery.

“We had robbed someone around Olorunsogo area of Ibadan, and that was first time I went out with the gang, and we were arrested. Initially, my wife and children were annoyed with me but now they have forgiven me.”

Taiwo said apart from the NCE he bagged in the prison, he also obtained a diploma in Theology.

Sounding repentant, he said, “There is no gain in engaging in crime, it only leads to regret, I have been in prison for 22 years now. If at all I am able to leave this prison, because I believe there is nothing God cannot do, I will either become a Pastor or a teacher.”

Itodo Daniel is another graduating student, on death row for murder. He said his girl friend died of a stab wound during a scuffle involving him and a rival.

Daniel said the  rival dating his late girlfriend had mobilised his friends to attack him, and it was during an ensuing fight that she was hit by a cutlass.

“I got into the prison in 2001, after my girl friend died of a cutlass wound she sustained during a fight over her with a rival, who came with thugs to attack me,” he said.