Female Genital Mutilation Should Be Abolished: Ebule Tesi

 

One of the participants at a meeting organized by a non-governmental organization known as Gender Advocacy and Women Resource Centre, Ebule Tesi from Sabagreia community in Yenagoa Local Government of Bayelsa State has called for the total abolishment of female genital mutilation.

Speaking on Thursday in Yenagoa during the meeting, Tesi agreed that the practice had done more harm than good to the female folks maintaining that female genital mutilation has been abolished everywhere.

He said:" Female  genital mutilation  was done in the olden days. So that should be abolished entirely because it is not supposed to be done anywhere anymore. Female mutilation should be abolished entirely.

Thanking the organizers of the programme, he disclosed that he was going back to his community to sensitize them about the negative effects of female genital mutilation.

"With what I have learned here, I will get to the Paramount Ruler and we will have a town hall meeting, sensitize the people and tell them the negative effects of doing female genital mutilation.

He called on the government at different  sectors and non-governmental organizations  to join hands  in sensitizing  the people on the reason why harmful  practices should be abolished.

 Also speaking, Gaza Taritupuleigha in his reaction maintained that sensitization will help him to also sensitive the locals on the need to stop some harmful practices which are of negative effects to the female gender but he argued that the female child should not be given equal inheritance with the male child.

He said:"I will also go and sensitive the rural.people on  the need to stop female genital mutilation but I'm of the  opinion that women should not be given equal inheritance with their male brothers because   the husband family may come to claim the inheritance of the woman  if  she didn't have any child before she dies.

Kaka Philomena from the Ministry of Women Affairs  disclosed that they  had been sensitizing people on  the need to know their rights and to know that there are gender based laws in Bayelsa. 

She said:"There are six significant laws that are there to fight GBV in the state. If you have such issue you can come to the ministry to report and seek redress."

Speaking earlier, The Executive Director of GAWTC, Mrs Oti Ovrawah said that the group brought the community folks together to deliberate on the report gotten from the communities and how to help them.

She said:" We just brought together the community people because of the report we got from their communities and we have brought them together and discussed what the report said and to  confirm actually if it is what is happening in the communities. We are just here to validate the report and update it."

She said that the same project was organized in Lagos before COVID in 2020  I'm  Ikorodu and Iwaya. "We tried to find  out this discrimination as see how it can be prevented.

"We had a baseline study in the South South and these are the communities that  the issues came up so we are thinking about prevention work. That was  why we chose these communities.and luckily, the communities were very receptive."

Anthony Iyortyer, Project Director, GAWTC, giving a breakdown of the group's findings in Odi, Sabagreia and Onuebum communities with the theme;  statutory and Customary laws and practices in Bayelsa State, he disclosed that all that have been discussed are going to be effected in the report.

He said that the essence of the meeting was to enable the community folks make input on a report that has been conducted in their various communities.

He said: "At the end, the community folks made their input and we are now going back to make the necessary amendments and do final report.

"The  whole project is for the communities and they have spoken to us and we will go back to update the report and come out with the final report."

At the end of the meeting, the participants all agreed that there was need to stop female genital mutilation, widows shouldn't be forced to re-mary from the diseased man family, girl child should be given an equal inheritance like the man child, child labour should be stopped, early marriage should be stopped, women battering  should be stopped, widows shouldn't be denied  her husband's inheritance, perpetrators of gender based violence should be named and shamed among other things.