An ex-convict, Alexander Wiredu, has revealed that prisoners at the Sunyani Central Prisons stake lotto regularly.
Making his revelations on Onua TV’s Breakfast show, Alexander Wiredu who said he served his jail term in dreadlocks confirmed that most Prison Service Officers act as intermediaries who go to great extents to grant their requests.
He told show host Captain Smart, “One time someone brought me ¢100 cedis and it was seized by officers at the gates, I later placed a call to an officer who went for the money and took his share.”
On the issue of staking lotto whiles behind bars, he said, “There are prisoners who stake lotto. A number of things don’t restrict prisoners.”
“When a convict stakes lotto, it is the prisons officer who takes the money and makes payment before the day’s deadline,” he said.
Adding, “I will not lie, this is the issue at Sunyani Central Prisons I’m revealing to you. If Onua TV has access, they should bring the officers so we meet on one platform and they can deny.”
Alexander, who was arrested in 2017, disclosed that the main aim of serving time was reformation, something that is woefully absent in the prisons.
He cited a number of fraudulent activities that prisoners are responsible for. According to him, the prisoners blackmail people from behind bars, threatening to expose nudes or kill their victims if they do not have their way.
He said, “People give us contacts to call and threaten people with death. Sometimes we act as fetish priests and threaten to use people for money rituals, then we take advantage and ask them to send us money to redeem them.
“We can even fake our accent and request ladies to send their nudes then blackmail them to send us money else we would expose them. A lot of them pay huge amounts because they are afraid of our threats,” Alexander Wiredu added.
