A renowned administrator in Rivers State and President of Opobo Women Welfare Association (OWWA), Ama-Opu-Orubo Felicia Stephen Pepple, has described the recent protest made by women in the state against the incessant killings of women and girls in various hotels across the state as a welcome development.
Speaking with The Tide in Port Harcourt in a telephone interview yesterday on the malady, Pepple commended the protesters, and said that it would serve to remind government and its security apparatus of the need to fight the scourge to a standstill and save the lives of helpless Nigerian women, who are either killed, maimed or strangulated to death by ritualists and politicians on the guise of sleeping with them as sex workers in various brothels.
She called on Governor Nyesom Wike in particular and other leaders in general to help stem the tide and ensure that culprits of such dastardly habits are brought to book to serve as deterrent to others.
Some women groups led by the Rotary International Port Harcourt South on Wednesday staged a peaceful march to the State Government House in Port Harcourt, protesting the killing of young women in hotels in the state.
Speaking on behalf of the protesters, Rita-Marley Idono. President of the Rotary of Port Harcourt South said women in the state were worried over the killings.The women who were in their hundreds, wore black attire, demanding a security action to end the ugly trend, which is fast gathering momentum. They called on the state government and security agencies to step up operations to arrest those behind the serial killings and bring them to justice.
Responding, Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Administration, Chuks Enwonwu, advised young women to shun prostitution. He called on mothers to be moved by the lesson of the trending serial killing to educate their daughters against prostitution as that remains the bait with which they are lured into their untimely grave.
“In as much as societal values are disintegrating, we must go back to try to educate them (women) and discourage them from going into prostitution because that is how they fall victim to these crimes”, Enwonwu said, disclosing that the Personnel of the Rivers State Police Command last Wednesday rescued a young woman who was almost strangled in a hotel in Mile 4 axis of Port Harcourt.
“The woman went into the hotel on the man’s invitation and when she slept off, the man tried to kill her with a pillow. She was lucky to have woken up as the man tried to press her down” reports said.
Reacting to the Rivers State Police Command’s advice to young women to shun prostitution, the Opobo Women Welfare Association President said that it is imperative for government at all levels to provide jobs for the girl-children, who, due to lack of jobs, could decide to take to prostitution to fend for themselves and families.
She recalled the case of one Benita who hails from Akpabuyo community in Cross River State that was nearly strangulated to death as a result of prostitution in a hotel in Port Harcourt forth night ago.The administrator, however, admonished Nigerian leaders to attach much importance to the state of development of the girl-children by providing them with needed incentives, such as good jobs that would keep them away from prostitution, financial empowerment that would enable them fend for themselves and scholarships for those of them that intend to go back to school.
Meanwhile, the protesting women, have said that “everybody, including prostitutes, deserve the right to life and should not be killed in such a gruesome manner.” They join the public who have taken to the social media to call for an end to this ugly trend, stating that prostitutes are also humans and so deserve protection from the state.
It will be recalled that Rivers State has in a close time recorded in succession deaths of over young girls in hotels within the state, suspected to be the handiwork of serial killers.

Sylvia ThankGod-Amadi & Bethel Toby