Group Hails FG for Launch of Shoe Factory in Abia
Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt
A group, Niger Delta Rights Advocates (NDRA) has lauded the federal government for the opening of a garment and shoe factory in Abia State, one of the nine Niger Delta states.
The group explained that the successful launching of the project has lifted the hearts of the youths in that state and by extension the Niger Delta region.
The Chairman NDRA, Bright Ngolo, who made the commendation yesterday, in Port Harcourt, said: “This singular project will trigger the local and national economy, cutting down/saving the nation hundreds of millions of tax-payers money that would have been expended on kitting our officers/men of the correctional services. The buzz that this will trigger for allied industries can only be imagined.”
“With today’s launch of the brand-new Garment and Shoe Factory at Aba, by the NCoS, through a groundbreaking initiative carried out in partnership with Erojim Nigeria Limited, decades of fetters around genuine empowerment and reformation of inmates who have to go through our correctional centres and providing them with the skills they need to start afresh and rebuild psycho-socially and psychologically has been birthed,” he added.
He said the achievement is coming on the heels of the opening of a class-act furniture showroom in Borno State by the NCoS.
NDRA restated call on the federal government and the National Assembly to, as a matter of urgent public interest, further oxygenate the silent revolution taking place with custodial centres by increasing budgetary allocations to the NCoS and indeed Interior Ministry.
“We in the NDRA believe the best way to get even better results out of a performing Ministry or agency is by paying such a Ministry more attention.
“We therefore, reiterate our earlier call that Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo and his team be seriously encouraged to completely rebuild and transform our decayed custodial centres owing to several years of criminal neglect.”
He continued that the initiative is a testament to the fact that government and its agencies can serve as vehicles for transformation of lives of the citizens. “This factory and the furniture factory at Borno State, will offer inmates top-tier vocational training, giving them valuable tools to earn a living both inside and outside the correctional facilities.”
Ngolo advised that “One strategy that the federal government must adopt to dissuade increasing vices amongst our vast youth population, is by multiplying the shape and size of vocational skills acquisition and trainings. This will help shut the gates of our custodial centres to the youth and cut down drastically on the number of inmates within the 240 custodial centres across the nation.”
