The beauty pageant held in Kirikiri prison in Ikoyi, Lagos was part of the activities organized by the Nigerian Correctional Service to mark this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD).
The other events where female inmates either serving jail terms or awaiting trial participated in include talk shows, talent shows, music and comedy.
The Command’s Public Relations Officer (PRO) Rotimi Oladokun disclosed this saying Chidinma Ojukwu murder suspect of the Chief Executive Officer of Super TV, Usifo Ataga participated in the pageant.
Oladokun said the pageant was only one of several other activities organised to mark International Women’s Day (IWD).
IWD is celebrated annually on March 8, to commemorate the social, political and economic achievements of women.
Ojukwu is standing trial as a suspect in the murder of the Chief Executive Officer of Super TV, Usifo Ataga June 21, 2021at the Lagos High Court, sitting at Tafar Balewa Square (TBS), Lagos.
The pictures of the pageant flooded social media since Wednesday and sent tongues wagging on the propriety or otherwise of allowing non-convicts such as Miss Ojukwu to participate in the event.
The beauty pageant was held within the Kirikiri prisons on Tuesday, March 8, 2022.
Ojukwu was said to have been crowned Miss Cell 2022.
Oladokun, a Superintendent, said: “I haven’t seen the pictures. But in line with International Women’s Day, the female custodial facilities commemorated International Women’s Day with inmates, various inmates without distinction or discrimination against anybody – an inmate is an inmate.
“All the inmates in different cell blocks presented various programmes. Some did theatre presentations, others drama, some poetry, some beauty pageant, some drawings, paintings, comedy. So, various blocks won. It was just like an inter-cell block event.
“There were lots of presentations. It was not an individual thing. It was just the facility’s way of trying to reform the inmates, those still in custody.
“So, that’s why they commemorated International Women’s Day, that’s why it was done in the female facility, not the male’s.”
Referring to Ojukwu, the spokesman said: “The particular inmate, I don’t know her name. There were various winners.
“The costumes were made by the inmates in the facility and some of the winners got sponsorship to pay for their UME forms, NECO, WASSCE and higher education.
Some donated libraries to us, apart from some other stationery, and welfare resources. It was not an individual event, so the prizes were collective.”
He further explained that Chidinma could have been a representative of a block.
“There were representatives for each block, so maybe the inmate you are referring to was one of such representatives, but it was not an individual event, it was a collective one commemorating International Women’s Day,” Oladokun stated.
