Eid, Ramadan is a funfair affair here in prison – Ali Gabass

Incarcerated medical doctor, Sulley Ali-Gabass has described Eid celebrations in prison as a joyful experience which cannot be overlooked.

Contrary to what many would imagine as ‘life in prison’ where most persons are miserable as a result of deprivation as far as celebrations and the conventional ‘enjoyments’ are concerned, Dr. Ali Gabass seems to have a different stance.

Recounting his previous Eid celebrations with muslim brethren in the prison cells, Ali Gabass described the occasion as a ‘funfair affair’, explaining that the usual nostalgic feelings that come with celebrating with the family though absent, are substituted somehow with the joy they ‘create’ for themselves and the celebrations they enjoy owing to the benevolence of other muslims outside the prison walls.

“Despite the fact that we are in prison, it is a funfair affair when you come to see it here, the Eid, we celebrate it very well, just like outside, we dress very nicely, only that we are not with our family anyway and we pray”, he explained

He maintained that though he misses his family, he takes solace in the fact that muslim brethren within and outside the prison collaboratively work to make the celebrations equally memorable.

“You can’t compare it [celebrating Ramadan at the prison] to celebrating Eid with your nuclear family [and] extended family when you visit each other and all that. So those nostalgic feelings definitely will overwhelm you at a point during the celebrations".

Doctor Ali Gabass is serving a 25-year-old jail term for defilement at the Nsawam Medium Security Prison.

An Accra Circuit Court found the former senior medical officer of the Effia Nkwanta Hospital in the Western Region guilty, of defiling a 16-year old boy and subsequently sentenced him to 25 years imprisonment.

He was, however, acquitted and discharged on the second count of unnatural carnal knowledge.

The judge, Rita Budu, said the maximum sentence was imposed, to serve as a deterrent to others who may want to indulge in same.
Dr. Ali-Gabass who has already spent two years in prison insists he did not commit the crime, he however believes, Allah has a reason for putting him in jail.

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