Prison Brought Out The Better Person In Me -Mpombo

PRISON has brought out the better person in me, says George Mpombo. Meanwhile, Steven Masumba says prison was a training ground for him because he has learnt a lot of things.
In an interview, Mpombo, a former defence minister and deputy high commissioner to Nigeria, who was pardoned on Christmas Day, said he went in prison as a political prisoner. He said his time in prison was a great transformational moment because he spent much time doing self-introspection. “I knew that the incarceration was the handiwork of my political opponents back in 2009.
It is not something that really demolished my thinking or the way I take things. So, it brought out the better person in me in that I used to spend more time for self-introspection,” Mpombo said. “…you talk to yourself, and you go through your life and see which way to go, you know…you talk about political issues, you think about this and you start looking at the political landscape in various ways because you have all the time.” He said it was unfortunate that he had spent a lot of money on lawyers since 2009 to try and defend himself.
“In fact, this [case] has cost me over K200 million in the old currency in terms of legal fees. It was just a sinister agenda that these guys were trying to implement. I came out without any bitterness. I have no hard feelings about the individuals that were responsible for my incarceration,” said Mpombo, adding that he did not know that he was going to be released on Christmas Day as he only learnt of it when his wife went to visit and inform him about a family bereavement. Mpombo said he spent his time in prison teaching English and civic education lessons to inmates.
And Masumba, who was released from prison on Christmas Day, yesterday said prison was not a good place. At the time of his pardon, the former sport deputy minister was serving a 12 month sentence for fraudulently obtaining an Accounting Technician Diploma from the National Institute of Public Administration.
Masumba said he was shocked to learn of president Sata’s death. He said he still could not believe that president Sata had died and that he would greatly miss him. Asked whether he had come out of prison repentant and changed, Masumba said: “When you look at repentance, it goes with your inner conviction.
And obviously even you, when a person tells you that you have stolen, if you feel that you have not stolen, you would not feel guilty because you are not a criminal. You know it yourself. To me, I never sinned. That is why I have got this matter before the Supreme Court. For me to have appealed, it means that I still think that maybe if I involve the Supreme Court, they will see it in a different manner.” Masumba said he spent his time in prison doing physical exercises.
“All those who are in politics have higher chances of going to prison,” said Masumba.

Posted by Kunda on December 28, 2014. Filed under LATEST NEWS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry