Wife of the Chairman of Andoni Local Government Council, Prof. Beatrice Awortu, has called on government at all levels to come up with stiff penalty for sexual abuse offenders against the girl child in the country.
Mrs Awortu also called on the girl child who suffers sexual abuse and molestation to break the culture of silence as a panacea to the menace of teenage pregnancy and its adverse effect which impedes the development of the girl child in the society.
Prof. Awortu made the call in an interview with The Tide at Ngo Town after the commemoration of the International Day of the Girl Child recently.
Prof Awortu, who expressed concern over the rate at which girl children were abused sexually by adult males, called for an urgent measure and severe penalty against girl child right abuse in the country.
She attributed the prevalence of teenage pregnancy in the society to a number of factors which include poverty, peer pressure, rape, lack of parental care by guidance, and ignorance.
According to the wife of the council chairman, “the power to curb sexual molestation of the girl child lies in the hands of the victims who are ready to speak up.
“The culture of silence by the victims encourages the sexual offenders to perpetrate the immoral act the more.
“It is also important that girls speak up when they are sexually abused, or when advances are made at them by the male factor like close family members such as uncles, cousins, in-laws and even visitors around them.
“There are cases where the people you live with make advances at you and a lot of times you just keep it to yourself and then they continue to make such advances at you because you don’t want to tell anybody: you don’t tell your mum, you don’t tell the aunty you are staying with, and before we know, it leads to something else.
“So, girls, please, speak up when you are in a place that you think is not safe, when somebody is making advances at you, when you know that something is not right around where you are, please speak up for your own safety.
“If we begin to speak up, if we begin to abstain, then, we would succeed a great deal in curbing teenage pregnancy and its consequences on the girl child”, she said
Prof. Awortu also cautioned that apart from the social stigma of teenage pregnancy, it is capable of truncating the academic pursuit of young girls and leading to their untimely death due to complications associated with adolescent pregnancy.
She advised young girls to focus on their academic pursuits as this holds brighter future for them, and avoid being distracted by mundane things of the moment which she described as temporary and destructive.
“If you look at the bigger picture, you will discover that what is happening now is temporary. Your future is the bigger picture.
If you want to be a Lawyer you should not be bothered about the things that are temporary. When you look at the beauty of the future ahead of you, you will endure the pains you think you have today”, she stated.
She further cautioned young girls against indecent dressing to avoid sexual molestation which could lead to teenage pregnancy.
Mrs Awortu also admonished the girl child on genuine repentance from sin and all forms of iniquities that do not please God, saying this would help them flee from all forms of immorality capable of jeopardizing their future ambitions.

By: Enoch Epelle