‘How Kirikiri helped us to become furniture makers’

Two ex-inmates of Kirikiri Prison, Lagos, James Etuk and Olawale Dada, have said the carpentry skills they acquired during their incarceration resulted in their becoming joint owners of a furniture company.

The duo, who spoke yesterday about vocational skill acquisition for youths, said prisons across the country should be rehabilitated to meet contemporary demands.

The joint owners of Alpha Furniture Works Ltd. told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that their combined seven years sojourn at Kirikiri Prison were not wasted.

Etuk, who was imprisoned for petty stealing and shoplifting in 1987 and spent four years at Kirikiri Prison, said the facility at that time was far better than now.

He lamented the recurrence of jailbreaks, blaming the facilities’ administrators for their nonchalance and inhumane disposition.

“Then, while in prison, our mindset was daily focused on what we could engage ourselves in after leaving the yard that would enable us re-integrate well into the society.

“Because of the good handling of the place by the administrators, the thought of jailbreak was not in any inmate’s mind.

“I improved on the carpentry skills I acquired there, by observation and reading through furniture work albums to meet up with the current trend,” Etuk said.

The furniture merchant, who has two apprentices alongside his co-owner, said the business is challenging but rewarding.

Dada, the co-owner, said: “I spent three years in prison. I was in the same cell with Etuk and we were pardoned at the same time.

“So we began to practise what we were taught in prison at construction sites at Festac Town.”