The Ekiti State Police Command has directed its men and officers to henceforth begin aggressive arrest and prosecution of offenders of Female Genital Mutilation in the state.
It described the act as illegal and gross violation of human rights.
The Commissioner of Police, Ekiti Command, Mr Morounkeji Adesina, gave the directive in Ado Ekiti, on Thursday, during a capacity building workshop organised by Hacey Health Initiative for Law Enforcement Officers on Female Genital Mutilation.
The workshop was attended by the officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force, Amotekun Corps, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps and community leaders .
The CP, represented by the Command’s spokesman, DSP Sunday Abutu, described FGM as a violation of the State’s Child’s Rights Act and the Gender Based Violence and Prohibition Law 2019 as amended, enacted by the state government.
Adesina said the scourge had destroyed many homes and lives, and that security agencies as enforcers of the laws would not allow the illegality to continue in Ekiti unabated.
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According to him,”This workshop is a welcome development because it deals with stopping Female Genital Mutilation, one of the bad practices in our society. The practice had caused permanent injuries and disabilities to many women , which was unlawful and this must be discouraged.
“From now henceforth, we will put our torchlights out there and monitor the activities of our people. My men should take it as part of their responsibilities to arrest and prosecute offenders. But our people should give us information that can help us arrest the perpetrators”, he said.
Expressing regret that no one had been jailed for FGM in Ekiti despite the existing laws,
The Coordinator, Reproductive Maternal and Child Health, Ekiti State Ministry of Health, Mrs Olukemi Akinleye, said the partnership with the security agencies will change the narratives.
She lamented that no one had been arrested or prosecuted saying” The GBV Law and Child’s Rights Act stipulated two years imprisonment for offenders or N200,000 fine or both , and these must be applied to teach offenders a bitter lesson”.
In her presentation, a Lawyer and Chief executive offficer, Gender Relevance Initiative Promotion (GRIP), Barr Rita Ilevbare, branded FGM as a socio-cultural menace that can be tackled by virulent enforcement of appropriate laws in place.
The child and Human Rights Advocate, said: “The fact that there is high teenage pregnancy in Ekiti shows that there was no correlation between the belief that cutting female genitalia makes women to be promiscuous.
