Niger Delta
RAPE: C’River NAWOJ In A Peaceful Protest
As another 12-year-old girl was reportedly raped in Calabar-South Local Government Area of Cross River State, the Chairman of Nigeria Association of Women Journalists, (NAWOJ) Cross River, Umo Bassi-Edet, has lamented the action of the rapist in the State.
Speaking to our correspondent after the protest, she said “yesterday, a twelve-year-old girl was raped at Calabar-South. The report was made to a Primary Healthcare Agency and the health worker that was trying to help the girl was molested.
“You see in Big Qua here, a grandpa raped his granddaughter. Some cases are not reported and why we are doing this is because we want to break the culture of silence.
“Some people because of fear of stigmatisation seem to cover it.
Maybe, your husband raped your stepdaughter and you don’t want that stigma, so you are protecting your husband to the detriment of the child, because once that rape starts, today you rape the child and tomorrow you continue doing it because no one is talking about it,”
she stressed.
The NAWOJ Chairman said that the protest took them around the major streets and terminated at the State House of Assembly where the Speaker was at hand to receive them.
“Why we had to stop at Gov’s office was to ensure that we have the executive arm of government to implement the legislation that is already on the ground that seek to protect women and the girl child from sexual and gender-based violence.
“We can also work together to influence the policies they make. We still have a lot of things that need to be done. Research shows that every hour somebody gets raped. And beyond this, the sad aspect of this thing is that 95 percent of rape cases are being carried out by people that are close to us, not strangers at all, people living close to you.
“Your girl child is not even safe with their brothers anymore; the girl child is no longer safe with her uncles, not safe with her grandfather, grandparents go to the extent of raping their grandchildren,” she lamented.
From FRIDAY NWAGBARA, Calabar