…Prison authority stops deployment, night duty for female staff
By ROMANUS UGWU
On mutual consent, consummation of sex is a legally acceptable fundamental human right for every mature adult all over the world. Except on moral grounds, no one has the right to stop mature adults from engaging in sexual activities.
However, such legitimacy comes with some limitations and restraints to all awaiting trial and convicted prison inmates especially in Nigeria. Unlike in most parts of the world, denial of sexual rights remains one of the pains and discomforts inmates of Nigeria prisons must endure during the period of their incarnation.
Legally described as conjugal visit world over, the failure of the Nigeria government to domesticate the international convention in the country has continued to be a serious burden and yoke on the necks of Nigeria prisoners.
This failure succinctly explains why inmates in Nigeria prisons must not only continue to endure their torturous emotional crisis but also manage the sexual tensions regardless of the duration of years many of the inmates spend as awaiting trial or convicted offenders sentenced to life imprisonment.
The reality is that in Nigeria prisons, denial of sexual right remains a traumatic and torturous experience every prison inmate must continue to cope with while the imprisonment lasted.
Circumventing the rule of engagement
But, confronted with such discomforting emotional ordeals, most inmates have violated the conjugal visit prison rules in most cases ironically in connivance with members of the prison staff. For them and their collaborators, it is inhuman to be deprived sex for as long as nine years in the case of some awaiting trial inmates or eternity in the case of convicts sentenced to life imprisonment.
The results of the collaborations between the inmates and prison staff have resulted in reported cases of pregnancy and or sexually transmitted diseases of some female inmates in some Nigeria prisons.
Nigeria prisons were also replete with reported cases of many prison staff arranging and smuggling in ladies into the cells especially for high profile VIP prison inmates for fees.
Among the prison staff are professional pimps and as long as such tripartite arrangement is clinically executed without any trace or anyone defaulting, no one will be held responsible for the violations of rule of engagement.
Female staff sex scandal
What has become a serious concern to the prison authorities and interested Nigerians, however, is the increasing rate of involvement of female prison staff in the illicit canal act. Imagine situations where female prison staff are deeply engaged in consensual canal knowledge with inmates under her custody for certain personal rewards?
Reliable sources close at Kuje Medium Prison revealed that such incidences are fast becoming a tradition as many female prison staff have turned themselves into sex instruments and machines, providing sexual satisfaction to the prison inmates for a fee.
The sources claimed that the rampancy of such incidence recently became serious concern to the prison authority resulting in the decision to stop deploying new female staff to the Kuje prison as part of the measure to check further embarrassment.
According to our source, it is now an open secret in Kuje prison that high profile inmates with heavy financial muscle and influence either collaborate with prison staff to smuggle in ladies into their cells or sometimes source such sexual activities from within the precinct of the behind the high prison walls among the female staff.
Confirming the existence of such absurdity among the inmates and female staff of Kuje Prison, our source said: “I can tell you on good authority that such incidence has been a regular occurrence in Kuje prison for a long time now.
“In fact, the prison authorities have continued to fight the rampart dangerous trends of female staff having sex with the inmates especially the high profile ones.
“The prison authorities have continued to express concerns about the rate many of the female staff were caught with inmates fondling their breasts while others were caught in the very sex act with them.
“The high profile VIP inmates with deep pockets have been involved in the increasing rate of sexual relationship between inmates and the female staff. The female staff seem to have perfected the act as they seductively relate with the VIPs at every slightest opportunity knowing that many of them will not stay long without engaging in sexual activities.
“In fact, such incidence became very rampant recently that the prison authority had to order an outright stoppage of further deployment of female staff to Kuje prison as a measure to checkmate the embarrassment,” our source said.
Prison authority reacts
Although the prison authority expectedly denied receiving any report of such incidence, it however admitted that even as many female staff still serve in Kuje prison, measures have been put in place to ensure that no female staff works inside the prison yard at night including lady nurses.
Shrugging off the allegation, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) FCT Command, Assistant Superintendent of Prisons (ASP) Humphrey Chukwuedo said that there is no iota of truth in the speculation that prison staff connive with inmates to bring ladies for them or that any female staff engage in such embarrassing sexual activity.
“There is no rule permitting conjugal visit in Nigeria prison today because government is yet to domesticate the rule like in other parts of the world,” he said, adding: “Conjugal visit is actually in the larger Mandela standard rules on treatment of offenders but it cannot be practiced in Nigeria.
“Although it is not a rule that female prison staff don’t serve in male prisons, if she must work there but she must be attached with a male staff. Most nurses in Kuje prison are female but we attach male warders to them in their office.
“They don’t even go into the inmate cells. It is not also true that we have stopped further deployment of female prison staff to Kuje prison. But I can tell you that there are particular things we cannot allow female staff to handle.
“For instance, we cannot allow a female staff to be on duty inside the cell especially at night. They can only be on night duty at the reception area. The prison authorities have reduced the number of female staff that work inside the cells but it is also not right that we don’t have them at all.
“We have many female staff but as you, since Kuje prison is a male prison, it will be wrong for female staff to dominate male staff. I have not received any report of female staff having an affair with high profile inmates in Kuje Prison.
“There is also no iota of truth that prison staff organise ladies for the inmates because the officers don’t go inside the cells individually but in clusters,” he insisted.