By Doh James Sonke
On behalf of the Minister of State, Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals, Laurent Esso, the Secretary of State to the Minister of Justice in charge of Penitentiary Administration, Doh Jerome officially inaugurated the new building attributed to Penitentiary Administration in Yaounde recently. The new structure is located beside the National Printing Press.
During the brief and symbolic event, Doh Jerome said, “Following this building, also known as Futurist, people are called to improve, without asking for anything in return. This service functions as a source of information for the Ministry of Justice, in order to, in a few words, make it possible for the Ministry to officialise the occupation of this building.’’
He stressed that ‘‘the officialisation of the occupation of a new and futuristic building, transforms and confers to the Penitentiary Administration, marks a very important event for us. It goes to reinforce the situation of the personnel who, for some time, were working in the Department of Penitentiary Administration, who were lodged at Essos, in a quarter quite far from the central service. Today, they are just near and their services are well-implanted today. So, we expect a better output from our staff here. I want to say that the Minister of State is gradually, according to the means put at his disposal, making sure that the situation of the prisons is improved and the personnel and detainees are better served.”
The Director of General Affairs at the Ministry of Justice, Marie Claire Dieudonnee Nseng-Elang added that “The Minister had asked that we recover the balconies and integrate them into the offices, it gives some offices storage spaces…apart from the offices of the managers who have the toilets inside, you have blocks of toilets on both sides, men’s and women’s toilets. If you take a look at the back, you will see the complex of modern judicial services of Yaoundé, which is two steps from here. It is a great project. At the moment, it is a project that should provide us with more than 200 offices, with about twenty audience rooms. There are already three audience rooms that are operational, with about fifty offices, and the other works are underway.’’
The Director of Penitentiary Administration, Pierre Landry Etoundi promised to keep the building in good shape, preventing sellers and hawkers from entering.