Sir Emeka Offor Foundation (SEOF) on Friday donated food stuff and toiletries to inmates of the Kuje Correctional Centre, Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the foundation donated 50 bags of 50kg rice, five bags of 100kg beans, five bags of 10 kg garri and 50 cartons of noodles.
The foundation also donated 10 jerry cans of vegetable oil, 20 bundles of tissue papers, 100 tubers of yam, 10 cartons of tomatoes and five bags of salt.
Mrs Adaora Offor, the Vice President of the Foundation, said the donations which were coming at the Christmas season, were to carry a message of love and care for the inmates in the spirit of the yuletide.
“We are here to share love and remember our brothers and sisters who are incarcerated for various reasons in accordance with the laws of the land.
“Today’s event is made possible by the vision and thoughts of my husband who has always maintained that all men and women created by God need a touch of hope and love irrespective of their present circumstances.
“These donations are just modest and may not represent all the needs of the inmates,“ she said.
She said it challenges our collective sense of humanity to show empathy to all people of God whose circumstances may appear helpless.
“There is always hope in God and we encourage all inmates to see their present circumstance as a call for attitudinal change to become better citizens to our nation and humanity.
“We invite all other NGOs and well-meaning Nigerians to also remember these ones when love is shared this season,” she said.
Offor commended the Deputy Comptroller General and her officers for the great humanitarian job they are doing.
She said that custody and management of deviants remain a very challenging vocation, adding that in nspite of the challenges, the officers have continued to smile through.
“Take joy in the fact that you are doing a job for God as we encourage relevant Authorities to give very high premium to the management of our Correctional Centres.
“We are encouraged by our shared relationship and values and pray that the coming year will be better for all of us,” she said.
In a remark, the Chief of Staff to the President of the foundation , AIG Chris Ezike (rtd.) said the gesture was based on the foundation’s core value which centres on health, human services, educational development and social interventions.
Ezike said that the foundation had thousands of widows on its programme which has by no little means empowered and alleviated their problems.
“We are engaged in activities revolving around health and human services, education and educational development and empowerment and social interventions.
“These activities are aimed at mitigating the challenges of poverty and creating life improving opportunities for the marginalised and vulnerable groups in our society,” he said.
Receiving the donations, the Deputy Comptroller General of Nigeria Correctional Service (NCS) in-charge of Welfare, Mrs Marylaurine Emmanuel thanked the foundation for the initiative.
“We are delighted to have you here today in our midst because there are a lot of other people out there who you could have chosen to show love in the spirit of the season.
“But it takes God for people to remember that there are people like us and our inmates that still exist.
“We say a big thank you for remembering us and thinking of us because if you weren’t thinking of us, of course you will not even remember that we exist.
“Today is a great day and we are very happy and overwhelmed by joy. Our inmates have been informed that there are people who have remembered them this season and I can tell you for a fact that their joy knows no bound,” she said.
She appealed to the foundation to intervene in other areas of concern, adding that they were hopeful that it would continue to assist the NCS.
“We were meant to understand that your foundation is also involved in medical care and we will be grateful if you can also assist us in this area.
“We have the medical, pharmacy, nursing and sports units. The government have been doing its best but like we all know, there is paucity of funds right now in the country.
“So, we are praying and hoping that we will see more of you as this will not be a one-off visit,” she said.
(NAN)