A bill meant to check domestic violence among men and women in Imo state sponsored by the member representing Njaba state constituency at the Imo state House of Assembly, Hon Uju Onwudiwe Tuesday was referred to the committee stage in spite of attempt made by a colleague to stop it, insinuating that the problem had already been taken care of by the constitution.
Briefing the press after plenary, the lawmaker said the idea behind the bill was to domesticate it in Imo state with the state’s own peculiar problems.
She added that the bill was aimed at checking men and women who engage in rape and apply violence on their wives or husbands by inflicting injuries or death, disclosing that her international partners in the United Nations and European Union were interested in the bill and had given her their backing because they believed that the bill would go a long way in checking domestic violence which has eaten deep into the fabric of the Nigerian society.
She further said that she was moved to sponsor the bill because of recent happenings in the country whereby women and underage girls are manhandled sexually and some husbands and wives were involved in violence against themselves, like the case of an Owerri based medical doctor whose wife disfigured recently and is now lying critically ill at the Federal Medical Centre Owerri.
Hon Onwudiwe was of the view that when the bill is finally passed to law such rape cases against women and underage children and violence against husbands and wives in the state would be a thing of the past as everybody would be controlled by the law.
