The Rivers Command of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) has raised a value chain for the production of organic fertilisers through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) at the Port-Harcourt Custodial Centre.

This came from a statement by the Command’s Public Relations Officer, Deputy Superintendent of Corrections Juliet Ofoni.

She explained that the programme was unveiled in Port-Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, South-South Nigeria, when the Controller-General of Corrections Haliru Nababa presented a signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to Rivers Command Controller of Corrections Felix Lawrence.

She stated that Lawrence, thereafter, handed over the document to the private developer, Mr. Ibikun Taiwo, Director, Biofil Technology Nigeria Limited, to produce organic fertilisers at the Maximum Security Custodial Centre, Port-Harcourt.

Mr. Nababa, represented by Mr. Raymond Jatau, Controller of Corrections, Sewage Unit, National Headquarters, Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT), stated that there would be a continuous selection and deployment of inmates to learn and benefit from the programme.

He said that the programme was expected to promote inmates’ rehabilitation and support their reintegration.

According to him, the programme will also enhance the human capital base of Nigerian youths, encourage public private partnership as a government strategic development policy and generate revenue from waste.

He said that the programme was also intended to ensure sustainability of biogas as a viable option for sewage and waste management in a Correctional environment.

“All benefits of the programme shall be articulated by a separate consultant on Inmates Rehabilitation Surveillance,  Messrs P- Greening Project Limited/ GTE, to ensure that inmates legitimate income is extracted from Biofil Technology Nigeria Limited,” Nababa said.

He noted that this serves “as an earning scheme for the effective rehabilitation of those affected inmates in the Correctional Centre”.

The NCoS chief continued: “The clear advantage of the arrangement is that maintenance cost for the biogas facility on the authority is drastically minimised while additional value of extraction of fertilisers for agricultural use is achieved.

“Utilisation of the organic fertiliser is expected to be procured by Agric Unit of the Nigerian Correctional Service to enrich activities of farm centres in Rivers and other commands around the southern parts of Nigeria.”

He also said that it was the desire of the Federal Government to optimise investment in all aspects of correctional management.

Nababa also used the occasion to urge all field officers to brace up to the new challenge of meeting up with the Service’s mandate of productivity and capacity building of inmates’ talents.

Highlights of the event were the presentation of the memorandum of understanding to the developer and the site inspection by all the dignitaries present.

The Rivers Command Controller of Corrections thanked the CGC for the sustainability of the biogas project since 2020, and further harnessing of the value chain in developing the biogas through the public private partnership scheme.

It would be recalled that the conversion of human waste to biogas energy at the Maximum Security Custodial Centre, Port-Harcourt, started with a liquefied petroleum gas-operated kitchen in November 2020.