Bokkos (Plateau) – Two million young women are affected by Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF), usually caused by child marriage, according to Women Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA), an NGO.
WRAPA’s Coordinator in Plateau, Mrs Umma Rimi, disclosed this on Thursday in Bokkos, Plateau State, during Focused Discussion and Sensitisation on Child Marriage, Sexual Reproductive Health Rights and Gender-based Violence.
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decried the rate at which girls below 18 years were given out in marriage, and described the trend as “very alarming.”
“At such early age, the young girl’s reproductive system is not matured for delivery, all manner of complications manifest at child birth leading to VVF,” she said.
She added that the forum embarked on the campaign to step up efforts toward the endorsement of the bill against gender-based violence in the country.
“We want the National Assembly to pass Bill to save women from injustices that have become their lot in the Nigerian society”, she said.
Ex-Speaker of Plateau House of Assembly, Mr Titus Alams, urged the Federal Government and the National Assembly to strive toward ending child marriage and gender-based violence.
Alams described the forum as “ a very timely saving grace”, considering the rate of abuses women go through in the country.
“The federal government and the peoples’ representatives at the National Assembly must rise to the challenge and stop the discrimination and violence against women.
“Women are not sub-humans; they are not animals, and should not be maltreated by fellow beings.
“They should be given their place as partners in progress’’, he added.
He said it was based on such respect for the womenfolk that the 7th session of Plateau House of Assembly, under his speakership, passed the Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill in 2015.
According to him, women play key roles in homes, especially in the training of children and caring for the home front, and should not be maltreated.
The traditional ruler of Kulere, Mr Lazarus Agai, represented by the Saf Bokkos, Mr Monday Adanchin, pledged to take the sensitization campaign to the door steps of his subjects. (NAN)