Prominent businessman and philanthropist, Mr Arthur Eze, on Monday put smiles on the faces of about 20 pupils of the Prisons Staff School, Abuja, with a gift of N20 million.
Eze, who immediately presented a cheque for the amount to the school management, said the money was meant for the payment of the beneficiaries’ school fees for seven years.
The gesture came after the pupils had participated in a drama presentation at the inauguration of the newly-completed third phase of the school in Abuja.
The donor, who is the Chairman of Atlas Oranto Petroleum and Special Guest of Honour at the occasion, also promised to equip the new classrooms with air conditioning sets.
The school, with a current population of 189 pupils, is run by wives of officers of the Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) under the aegis of the Prison Officers’ Wives Association (PROWA).
The institution is open to children of NPS staff and members of general public, who pay between N10,000 and N20,000 as school fees per child every term.
In a short speech, Eze commended PROWA for its commitment to the education of “Nigeria’s future leaders’’ through the school project.
He urged other privileged individuals, organisations and corporate bodies to emulate the PROWA example and assist government in the nation’s educational development.
The Controller General of Prisons, Mr Ja’Afaru Ahmed, said the NPS would continue to assist the association in its efforts at extending the school to all formations across the country.
To this end, Ahmed disclosed that he had sent circulars to all state controllers to give PROWA the needed support in its drive to establish primary and secondary schools in their respective commands nationwide.
In her address of welcome, the National President of PROWA, Hajiya Gwamma Ahmed, said the school was established in 2013 to produce “future leaders of not only great learning but of sound character’’.
The inaugurated building, according to her, houses a mini conference room, a library, the administrative office of the school and some classrooms to complement existing ones.
Forty one widows of prison officers who died in active service as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East were empowered with starter packs for small scale businesses.
The items include: ovens, sewing machine and pepper grinding machines.
The PROWA president said the gesture was “one of the numerous avenues through which the association continues to reinforce her motto: `We care too’’’.
She also solicited support from public spirited individuals and corporate organisations to PROWA in the discharge of its Corporate Social Responsibility.
