EBONYI STATE TO CRIMINALIZE FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION

United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF says Ebonyi State has achieved 20% reduction in the prevalence rate of Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting.

The Chief of UNICEF Enugu Field Office, Dr. Abraham Conteh stated this at a one day policy dialogue in commemoration of International Day of Zero Tolerance against Female Genital Mutilation in Abakaliki.

Governor David Umahi and his wife Rachael were among dignitaries who attended the event.

Although International Day for Zero Tolerance against Female Genital Mutilation was observed on February 6, the policy dialogue organized by “Family Succour and Upliftment Foundation,” a pet project of the wife of the Ebonyi State Governor, was aimed at addressing some noticeable impediments toward ending the practice in the state by 2030.

Dr. Conteh said though the prevalence rate had moved from 63% in 2011 to 43% in 2017, there was the need for more political will to end the obnoxious practice before the target year.

The Wife of the Governor, Mrs. Rachael Umahi, attributed the reduction in the prevalence rate of Female Genital Mutilation to the campaign being carried out by her pet project.

She expressed the hope that the state government would soon come up with a law criminalizing the practice.

Governor Umahi described Female Genital Mutilation as a violation of right and emphasized that the state government would put in place necessary measures to stop it.

He donated ₦20,000,000.00 in support of the campaign and promised that a law recently passed by the state House of Assembly to prohibit Female Genital Mutilation would soon be assented to.

Hundreds of school girls led by the wife of the State Chief of Staff, Mrs. Patience Ofor-Okorie had before the event engaged in a road walk to sensitize members of the public to the obnoxious practice

AMECHI ODO