A’Ibom gov’s wife partners UNFP in combating rape

In a bid to address the high prevalence rate of rape in Akwa Ibom state, the wife of the state governor, Mrs Martha Udom Emmanuel, in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) recently set up a gender-based violence preventive centre in the state aimed at addressing the scourge.

UNPF is working with , Family Empowerment and Youth Reorientation Programme(FEYReP) a pet project of the wife of the  state governor.

The official unveiling of the center took place at FEYReP office, Ewet Housing Estate, Uyo, the state capital.

Mrs. Emmanuel while addressing participants at Ibom hall after the opening ceremony lamented that the rampant cases of gender-based violence in Nigeria and Akwa Ibom in particular is a huge gap in the progress of women’s right and empowerment.

She said statistics available are alarming, pointing out that one in every three girls’ aged 15 to 24 experience violence. 

Mrs. Emmanuel while calling on all hands to be deck to curb the ugly scenario, added that it was no longer acceptable to keep condoning the stigma and culture of silence that allows such acts to go unabated and perpetrators to go unpunished.

Also speaking, representative of the UNFPA Mr. Kenneth Ehouzou while lending the group’s voice to the initiative said the partnership became expedient in order to end all forms of violence against women in state.

He said data at their disposal indicates that over 59percent of women in the state have been victims of physical and sexual violence and that the one-stop preventive center seeks to address this anomaly.

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