Fayemi Inaugurates Committees to Fight Gender-based Molestations

The Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has declared that his administration will maintain zero tolerance to all forms of gender molestations in the state.

“Gender-based violence has become pandemic in the country to the extent that one out of every five women must have been raped or abused. We must all work together to fight this.

“We just learnt that a woman was violently molested at Iludun Ekiti in Ilejemeje Local Government. I have asked the police to investigate whoever was responsible and bring the culprit to book”.

Fayemi said he considered the child rights law as an appropriate legal framework that can protect and safeguard the younger population.

Governor Fayemi also appealed to parents to properly utilise the free education policy of hid government, by not allowing their children to be on the streets during school hours. He said: “Today in Ekiti, education is free up to secondary level and there is no reason why any child should be on the streets hawking or loitering about instead of being in school. Under this government, education is compulsory, it is no longer fun.”

He said his government will deal decisively with those who have penchant for child rights violation to save the future of this state.

Fayemi spoke in Ado Ekiti on Wednesday while inaugurating the resuscitated Gender Based Violence Management Committee and the State Child’s Right’ Implementation Committee.

The committees, which are chaired by the First Lady, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, have the Commissioners for Women Affairs, Mrs Moji Fafure, Justice, Mr. Wale Fapohunda, Commissioner for Health, Dr Moji Yayaya Kolade and others, as members.

Governor Fayemi said that the committees were constituted to assist his administration to protect the rights of the women and the common men.

He noted that the committees, which were in operation during his first term in office, between 2011 and 2014, were abandoned after his exit by the immediate past government.

“Laws are made by the State to protect its people and once it is removed from the statute, then it is no longer functional. It should not start and end with a government.

In her response, Mrs Fayemi advised members of the committees to take the task of ridding the state of violators very seriously. She said: “With the phasing out of these committees under the last government,we are going to start our duties from the scratch. It is our hope that you with all the stakeholders will join hands with us to fight this scourge.

“We must take cognisnce of the fact that those being violated are Ekiti citizens and we have to protect them from all these molestations,” she said.