S• @SaadahThoughts - Twitter Profile

During my NYSC last year in Adamawa State, our CDS group visited a prison. Till today, I genuinely don’t think I’ve recovered from what I saw there. We went there with good intentions. We carried detergents, food items and other little things we thought would help them. The plan was simple talk to the inmates, encourage them, advise them and remind them that life could still change for the better. The moment we entered the prison compound, the atmosphere changed completely. One of the officers told us to drop all our phones inside a small office before going further. At first I didn’t think much of it, but the moment that door closed behind us, I started feeling uncomfortable. The silence inside that place was not normal. As we approached, the officers ordered them to come out and sit on the floor for us. Around 70 of them slowly walked out and sat quietly without making noise. Most of them were very young. Maybe around 21 to 28 years old. Boys that looked like they should still be in school or hustling outside trying to survive life. But what shocked me first was their appearance. Almost all of them looked extremely skinny. Their hair was completely barbed low to the point where you could clearly see the shape of their skulls. Not normal skinny… the kind that makes you uncomfortable when you look too long. Then I noticed an old man sitting among them.

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