By Tabora Bojang
Some of the 23 youth protesters remanded at Central Prisons the Mile II have been speaking about the conditions of their detention.
One of the detainees complained they were dumped into overcrowded cells with some of them sleeping on woods placed on the floor.
“This place is packed beyond capacity. Imagine they put 27 of us in one small room. I slept in the lower beds while other detainees we found here occupy the upper beds. There were no mattresses and the room is poorly ventilated,” he said.
He said he has also informed the prison guards that he is a gastric patient and needed medical assistance but was repeatedly asked to wait.
Other detainees also complained that the food served to them upon their arrival was not nutritious and none of the detainees ate it. They said members of protest group GALA have since been providing them food including lunch, dinner and breakfast.
Meanwhile, the prison vicinity was busy with families, friends and sympathisers flooding to visit the detainees. Each visitor was given about three minutes to speak to the detainees as prison guards watch. Outside the prison, a military armoured vehicle was stationed filled with heavily armed soldiers facing the prison gate.
Some of the visitors could be heard making complaints about difficulties they faced from prison guards in accessing the detainees.
There are reports that a number of the protesters are on hunger strike.
