Wife of Ekiti State governor, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, has
cautioned parents against exposing their girl-child to sexual predators
while seeking imaginary spiritual cleansing, otherwise known as
deliverance.
Wife of Ekiti State governor, Erelu Bisi Fayemi
She
said many under-aged girls have unwittingly become sex slaves while
being held captive by the so-called religious leaders, leading to
pregnancy and fatal abortions.
The First Lady disclosed these at a
stakeholders’ forum on the prevention of teenage pregnancy, organized
by the Women Health and Action Research Centre, in collaboration with
the Ekiti Development Foundation, in Ado-Ekiti, on Tuesday.
Erelu
Bisi Fayemi said, “When you send your girl-child to all these spiritual
homes for imaginary deliverance, they become exposed to illicit sex by
the so-called religious leaders expected to ‘deliver’ or heal them.
“While
I will not cast aspersions at any religion, I want to charge you
parents to learn to intercede on your children’s behalf. Who says your
prayers will not be answered if you closet yourself and pray to God.
These
sexual predators masquerading as religious leaders carry out all sorts
of unprintable stunts in the name of cleansing. In the end they end up
impregnating these girls.”
She called for concerted
approach to stem the tide of teenage pregnancy in the country to
safeguard the well-being and future of the girl-child.
In this
regard, the governor’s wife said parents, traditional institutions,
religious bodies, educational institutions, the judiciary, law
enforcement agencies and members of each community had a role to play.
With
hindsight, she said young girls are being exploited by paedophiles and
sometimes their peers owing to ignorance, neglect, negligence and
poverty, particularly among parents.
The governor’s wife promised
to continue to collaborate with other institutions to invoke the
provisions of the Child Rights Law already in operation in the state to
curb the trend of teenage pregnancy.
She reminded the gathering
that it was a punishable offence for a man to have sexual intercourse
with a girl under the age of 18 years, not minding the usual claim of
mutual consent by the perpetrators.
She added, “In
Ekiti state and in a couple states in Nigeria, we have the Child Rights
Law and under the provision of the law, sexual intercourse with a girl
under the age of 18 is child rape.
If an
older man has sexual intercourse with a girl less than 18 years, the
man needs to be arrested to face charges of child rape.
The present administration in Ekiti will not allow the lives of our youths to be wasted as a result of teenage pregnancy.”
The
governor’s wife noted that empowerment and increased sensitization of
women and education of the girl-child was paramount to curbing the
incidence in the state.
Calling on school authorities to keep
close tabs on the girl-child, she said that they would henceforth be
held liable for any reported case of sexual assault against the girl.
Similarly,
she said any teacher found to have sexually violated a school girl
would be summarily dismissed from the system if found guilty by a
disciplinary panel.
She also expressed worry at the manner
fathers abandoned their responsibilities to their children and wives,
which she said contributed to over exposure of girls to sex.
Advising
against stigmatization of victims of teenage pregnancy, the First Lady
said that government would put a programme in place to enable teenage
mothers to continue their education after child birth.
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