Habiba Charity Foundation builds mosque for prison inmates

Prison inmates and other faithful in the environ can now boast of a better place of worship, as Habiba Charity Foundation built and hand over a mosque to the inmates of Nigeria Prison Services, Ogun State command at Oba Prison.

Habiba Charity Foundation is a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), committed to the rehabilitation of inmates and other vulnerable groups in the society.

The foundation being sponsored by its Chairman, Engineer Rasheed Sunmola, a Nigerian based in the Netherlands, was established in memory of his late daughter Habiba to promote projects such as rehabilitation of inmates, provision of qualitative education for the inmates, supporting the orphans with basic needs and medical care especially the special kids and assisting the juveniles for a better future.

The Manager, Habiba Charity Foundation, Dupe Otenaike, while officially handing over the mosque to the Controller of Prison Ogun State command, Abolade Benson, urged the inmates to take the opportunity of the modern to structure to increase their spiritual commitment and be more dedicated to Allah’s commandments.

Benson applauded the gesture, saying: “It is a very kind gesture. I believe it will enable the Muslim inmates to move closer to God. I want to thank them for the gesture and we really appreciate”.

On how it would impact positively on the inmates, he said: “Religion is one of the best ways to refine inmates. So, building this mosque for inmates will help us to fulfill our mandate, which is majorly inmates’ reformation. It is our believe that when the inmates constantly ear the words of God, it would go a long way in reforming them,”

Meanwhile, Sunmola said: “The idea is to try to render some services to humanity in our own little way.

We try to assist both Muslims and non-Muslims alike. When we give them food, pay some fines for those who can’t afford to pay, and put them in classes for education purposes, it’s always for all of the inmates, we don’t segregate. We also believe that if there is a church at any of the prisons in any state for the Christians to worship, there should also be a mosque for the Muslim’s there as well,”

Asked whether there are political ambitions behind the gesture as mostly found around, he said: “I have no political ambition. It’s purely to seek the pleasure of my creator, Allah. Part of what we do is to assist in rehabilitation of the inmates while they are in prison and after their release from the prison.”

Sunmola give details on the genesis of the idea, saying: “It all started about 10 years ago when I visited Ibara Prison and one of the orphanages at Abeokuta. I saw the situation there and it was really bad at both places. I went back to Holland and told my wife about what I saw and she also felt bad about it. It was then we decided to think of what can be done to help them. Since then Alhamdulillah we’ve impacted positively on their lives. We do send special kids who needs medical attention to the hospital for treatment; assist some inmates with medical assistance and also the boys at the juvenile centre. The donation of mosque to Oba Prison is not the first of such gesture. The Foundation had earlier donated and handed over similar mosque projects to administrators Booster Children home at Adigbe,”

To reduce the crime rate in the society, he urged parents to invest more in their children and be good role model for them, while the government should also help in providing more training facilities for the youth, because youths of today are the leaders of tomorrow. “So, if we want to have good leaders tomorrow, we have to give the youth of today all the proper care and the trainings that they need,” he said.