General News of Tuesday, 3 September 2019

Source: mynewsgh.com

Prisons Service denies unfair treatment claim by Nigerian jailed 130 years

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A Nigerian serving 130-year jail term at the Ankaful Maximum Security Prison in a message smuggled out of the prison in 2015 claimed Nigerians in Ghanaian prisons were placed under unbearable conditions, and that some have died without their families being informed.

Emmanuel Emeka further alleged in the message which has now resurfaced on social media that he “witnessed over 100 deaths of Nigerian citizen in the Ghana prison,” hence appealed to the Nigerian government to intervene.

The Regional Command described Emeka’s allegation of rampant death of Nigerian nationals in Ghana’s prisons a “baseless untruths”,

Reacting to the claim Central command explained in a statement that the Ghana Prisons Service through paralegal staff facilitates prisoner appeal processes and that negotiations for legal services for inmates “are mostly initiated and sustained by relatives of incarcerated persons.

In the statement available to MyNewsGh.com the command stated “it is necessary for the general public to note that Ghana’s prison system, like the wider Ghanaian society, does not discriminate against foreigners. All prisoners, irrespective of nationality, have the right to appeal.”

According to the Command, Emeka used a smuggled mobile phone to send out the said message but once the issue came to their attention, “the mobile phone was swiftly retrieved and disciplinary actions were instituted against him”.