In continuation of activities marking her 2019 Press Week, the Ebonyi State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), on Tuesday paid a surprise visit to the Remand Home, Abakaliki, where under-aged minors are being kept for various offences.

The council donated food items, clothes and other items worth thousands of naira to the inmates of the home to celebrate with journalists.

Chairman of Ebonyi 2019 Press Week committee and the state Correspondent of Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Comrade Amechi Odo, said the visit was to give the inmates a sense of belonging.

“We are here to celebrate with the inmates of this remand home, they are part and parcel of the society and we are the watchdog of the society. So, our God-given responsibility has brought us to this place through press week because if not for press week, we wouldn’t have come en mass like this, we are here to celebrate with them to look into their affairs to see where they are staying, to see how it is being kept.

“This Press Week started yesterday with a road work. Today, we are visiting here, tomorrow will be a novelty match while the grand finale will be on Thursday. So, it has been a mouth-watering event,” he said.

One of the EXCO members of NUJ, Comrade Juliana Okoro, told the inmates to change their lives while in the remand home so that not to return back to the area because of their characters after being discharged.

She expressed optimism that they would leave the remand home very soon.

One of the inmates (name withheld), said they have offended the government and the society in general by committing crimes which kept them in the remand home and promised that they would turn a new leaf.

He commended the NUJ for their visit and donations to them which he said has shown them love.