United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has frowned at the high rate of child labour, abuse, other forms of violence on children, girls and women in the state.
UNICEF made the condemnations in Ezzamgbo the headquarters of Ohaukwu local government area of the state during mobilization and advocacy meeting of stakeholders of the local government and service providers to raise awareness on the need to speak up about violence against children, violence against women and girls and gender-based violence in the state.
The programme was organized by the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in the state with support from the European Union-United Nations (EU-UN) spotlight initiative.
Elder Mathew Odono, the State Director National Orientation Agency at the event said violence against women, girls and children has become very rampant in Ebonyi state.
He noted that child labour, abuse and defilement was on the steady increase in the state and called on the people and victims to always speak out whenever those crimes are recorded in their localities.
“We are here to address pressing societal problems bordering on violations of children, women and girls rights.
“In our society today, these things have become very rampant. You hear of rape, you hear of child labour, you hear of child trafficking, all sorts of things in the society. Of course, we have not forgotten FGM/Cutting.
“The issue of child labour is quite on the increase, rape is also on the increase. Every time you hear that an adult has defiled or raped a child or girl. Child labour is above 70/75% in the state, it is quite on the increase in the state. Rape/defilement is above 60% in the state.
“These things are on the increase and we are worried about them. People indulge in all these things maybe because of ignorance but ignorance is not an excuse before the law.
“These are the things that affect our women, our children and our girl child. And the unfortunate thing is that these things happen around our watch and people are not speaking up because of maybe stigmatization.
“So, we are sensitizing stakeholders on the need for them to encourage victims to speak out because if you don’t fight a crime, the thing will continue to grow,” he stated.
Also speaking, NOA UNICEF Desk Officer in the state, Unah Uchenna said community leaders would be engaged to see how they can start reporting the crimes which he described as social issues.
“Child labour, abuse, rape, defilement are social issues. It is not a one-off something that will just end in a jiffy. So, we will continue to talk to the people but recently, UNICEF has decided to support the National Orientation Agency to engage community leaders, community members in seven LGAs in the state.
“We are going to engage the community members, the community leaders to see how they should start reporting violence against children, violence against women and girls and all forms of Gender Based Violence(GBV) because we found out that these things happen in the community and the community members always take it as part of life and normal thing.
“So, we want them to start reporting all these things. At times they will report it after so many years, so many months, so many weeks it has happened. We want them to report it as soon as it happens within their areas,” he said.
Mrs. Ijeoma Mike-Ajanwachukwu, the state Counsel in the Ministry of Justice also noted that cases of violence against women and children were on the increase in the state.
She disclosed that the Ministry of Justice has been doing a lot on the cases, adding that the ministry has always ensured that information is filed against the defendant(accused person) whenever the issue occurs.
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