Africa-Press – Angola. The deputy attorney general of the Republic in Cuando Cubango defended the urgent need to create the conditions for the opening of representation of the services of the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) in the nine municipalities of the province, so that citizens stop traveling long distances.
Nilton Muaca, who was speaking yesterday during a meeting with the director general of Penitentiary Services, main prison commissioner Bernardo Gourgel, after three days of work in Cuando Cubango, informed that at the moment the PGR has representations only in the municipalities of Menongue, Cuchi and Cuito Cuanavale.
He added that due to the lack of this service in the municipalities of Calai, Cuangar, Dirico, Mavinga, Nancova and Rivungo, people who commit a crime or who want to resolve a problem with the PGR have to travel between 400 and 700 kilometers to the city of Menongue.
“Therefore, there is an urgent need to open the services of the Attorney General’s Office in the remaining six municipalities of Cuando Cubango to prevent someone who is in the municipality of Rivungo from having to walk more than 700 kilometers to the city of Menongue to be heard or file a complaint,” he said.
Nilton Muaca considered that the conditions for opening representations of the PGR necessarily pass through the creation of infrastructures for work, accommodation and the recruitment of more Justice technicians.
He made it known that in addition to the lack of Justice technicians, the PGR in the province needs six new magistrates, to support the existing 11 who serve in the Menongue Comarca Court, and the different bodies of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), with many constraints in the exercise of their functions.
The Deputy Attorney General of the Republic in Cuando Cubango said that, despite these difficulties, the province does not have excess pre-trial detention, but faces overcrowding, taking into account that the Menongue prison was built to house 500 inmates and today supports over 800 .
He pointed out as the most frequent crimes in the province of Cuando Cubango cases of theft, robberies, evasion of paternity, physical aggression between couples, sexual violence and homicides.
Support for prisoners
The general director of Penitentiary Services, main prison commissioner Bernardo Gourgel, said that in the next few days he will deliver agricultural means to the sector he directs in the province, so that inmates can increase the production of various crops for food self-sufficiency for the prison population. .
After having visited the agricultural fields of Zonde and Missombo commune, with 150 and 100 hectares of land, the inmates of the Menongue prison establishment requested agricultural inputs from the General Directorate of Penitentiary Services, to boost production in the region.
In addition to the inputs, the inmates also requested motor pumps and milling, taking into account that they intend to produce maize and cassava on a large scale, to transform it into fuba.
Bernardo Gourgel expressed satisfaction with the levels of production of maize, cassava, onions, tomatoes, among others, which, above all, is allowing inmates to learn a profession capable of helping them to continue their lives in a healthy way. honestly after serving their sentences.
He also visited the site where the new prison will be built, in the commune of Missombo, with work scheduled to start next year. There are already unfinished works on the site for a health post and a school with 12 classrooms that will be added to the new facilities and that will serve the populations residing in the surroundings.
The Deputy Governor for the Political, Social and Economic Sector, Helena Chimena Lourenço, said that the visit by the Director General of Penitentiary Services and the delegation came at the right time, to be able to verify the real functioning of the establishment, the situation of the prison population , infrastructure, academic and professional training, among other areas.
He considered that the General Directorate of Prison Services, in collaboration with the local Government, should work to guarantee a better quality of life for citizens who are in conflict with the law.
For three days in the province, the general director of Penitentiary Services worked in the municipality of Cuito Cuanavale, where he visited the prison establishment in that locality, the land for the construction of future penitentiary facilities, the agricultural production field about six kilometers from the headquarters and the Memorial to the Heroes of the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale.
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