Akwa Ibom to relocate Uyo Prison

The Akwa Ibom state government on Tuesday announced its plans to relocate Uyo Federal Prison to a more conducive environment.

Enobong Uwah, commissioner for housing and urban renewal, disclosed this at the state house of assembly during the defence of the 2016 budget.

Uwah said the prison authorities had informed the government of the need for relocation.

“The ravine has eaten deep into the Uyo prison. The prison authority had appealed to the state government and we have written to the prison authority at the federal level,” he said.

“So in 2016, we are going to relocate the Uyo Prison to an environment more conducive. The building of a new Uyo Federal Prison has been captured in the 2016 budget estimate.

Uwah, who said the prison was under the threat of gully erosion, added that the edifice could collapse if not relocated from its present site.

Uwah said the government would renovate the old secretariat and create more offices for ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), in order to stop spending money on rented offices.

In his remark, Usoro Akpanusoh, chairman house committee on finance and appropriation, urged the commissioner to ensure the relocation of mechanic village from the state capital.

Akpanusoh also appealed to the commissioner to look into the possibility of relocating the sale of caskets from the centre of Uyo.

“There are certain things we ought not to bring into the city, it can be very scaring,” he said.

Akpanisoh urged the government to improve on its internally generated revenue in 2016 considering the current world economic meltdown.