The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has advocated capital punishment for those who sexually abused or harassed young girls in the country, especially the lecturers and teachers who take advantage of their students.
President of TUC Comrade Quadri Olaleye who lamented the increasing rate of sexually abused child girl and rape in the society said such offence should carry the ultimate penalty, which is capital punishment.
In a speech delivered at a programme organised by the TUC Women Commission to mark the International Girl Child Day at Valencial Hotel, Abuja,
Comrade Olaleye, urged the National Assembly to come up with capital punishment for people who indulge in such to deter others.
The TUC President said: “Comrades and friends, there is hardly any day we do not read news of parents, uncles, neighbours, teachers, even security operatives abusing young girls. The latest happened at one of our highly revered tertiary institution in the country.
“After parents, the next set of people children relate and are free with used to be their teachers. Unfortunately, the girl children are no longer safe with them.
“Where do we go from here? I must commend the Senate for taking it upon themselves to correct the anomaly. I urge them to come up with capital punishment for people who indulge in such to deter others.”
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He pointed out that there are myriad of problems and challenges confronting the girl child and women in particular in the society, but commended the women fold for confronting them and making a huge progress.
He said: “The message TUC is giving out to parents and everybody is that we must support the girl child, we must support them just like we give support to the male child. They can also achieve what a male child can achieve, and we have to treat them equally, support them in education and also support them morally.
“To the government of Nigeria, they need to do more on security, especially protecting the schools where we have majorly of the girl child and intensify efforts to get the release, especially the girls that are still in the hands of the kidnappers.”
He added: “What we are telling everybody is not just to support the girl child, to make sure that they are educated, it not only to know how to read and write, but to be skilled. We should make sure we give them qualitative education, they also have equal rights to pursue their career either in engineering or whatsoever discipline.”
Also, the Chairperson of TUC Women Commission, Comrade Hafsatu Shuibu said the girl child has a right to quality education, rights to free health care services, to be free to occupy positions of decision making without being harassed.
She explained that the girl child would submit an important bill to the United Nations to mark the 2019 International Girl Child Day, adding, “the bill which the children submitted today is called the global child right bill.”
She said: “I look forward to a situation where I’ll see these girls become greater women than those of us that are here today. I feel excited, I feel very happy. This year’s theme: “With her: A skilled girl first,” is straight to the point.
“Their mothers are being limited to the passenger seat, we want a situation where they will know what their rights are, how they could go about knowing it.”
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