By CHARLES IWUOHA

The Carmelite Prisoners’ Interest Organization (CAPIO) on Thursday donated Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and other items worth multi-million naira to Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) Enugu State Command.

The PPE items included 1000 re-useable facemasks; 50 gallons of 20 litres of alcohol-based hand sanitizers; three infrared thermometers and 80 packs of hand gloves.

Others are 1,500 bags of sachet water and 2,000 tablets of toilet soaps.

Presenting the items at the NCoS Enugu State Command in Enugu, Executive Director of CAPIO, Rev. Fr. Ambrose Ekeroku, said that CAPIO’s intervention was aimed at increasing the capacity of the correctional officers to effectively detect and prevent the spread of the virus to the inmates.

Ekeroku noted that the COVID-19 sensitisation campaign in the command and custodian centre today would also help to educate correctional officers and inmates on hygiene practices to imbibe to prevent the spread of the virus.

“As we are all aware, inmates of custodial facilities have higher risks of getting infectious diseases due to the poor environments they are confined to. To practice hand hygiene will be impossible for thousands of inmates in some facilities that also lack water. Custodial Centres have a greater risk of spreading the COVID-19 and this has been established severally.

“Typical Nigerian Custodial Centers as we are all aware hold 3 times its installed capacity or more,” he said.

He also said that CAPIO’s emergency response to contain the spread of COVID-19 was aimed at complementing the laudable efforts of the Controller General of Corrections and the Federal Government.

“We hope that the PPEs donated today will be used effectively among officers and inmates of this command and with your collective efforts we will be able to prevent COVID-19 from entering and spreading in this facility,” he said.

Responding, Controller of NCoS Enugu State Command, Mr. Joseph Emelue, thanked God for the opportunity of a supportive group to the goals of NCoS such as CAPIO to come to the aid of the custodian centres in Enugu State.

Emelue said that the PPE was badly needed at this time, adding that the items would be judiciously used and distributed among the custodian centres, wardens and inmates for safety.

“We need to do more in educating our people both co-workers and family members to always form the habit of regular hand washing and wearing of face marks to properly protect everyone around us,” he added.

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