The wife of Ekiti State Governor, Dr Olayemi Oyebanji, has reiterated that perpetrators of gender based violence would always face the consequence of their actions, to serve as deterrents to others.
The Governor’s wife stated this at a two-day workshop organized by her office in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government Affairs for female chairpersons, wives of local government chairmen and other stakeholders.
The first lady, who spoke through the state Head of service, Dr Folakemi Olomojobi, described Gender Based Violence as a heinous crime which should not continue unchecked.
She explained that Gender Based Violence such as female genital mutilation, breast ironing, teenage or forced marriage, wife or husband molestation, barbaric widowhood rites among others, should not be a difficult thing to tackle with the collaboration of relevant stakeholders.
“Together we can build a society where every individual is free from fear, harm and oppression. I therefore call on all concerned parties to join this fight as champions of justice and peace. Let us work together to ensure a brighter, safer and violence -free future for ourselves and our children”. She said.
While declaring the workshop opened, Ekiti State Deputy Governor, Chief Monisade Afuye said the event was to raise awareness, educate, and develop strategies to combat Gender Based Violence in Ekiti State.
Afuye, who expressed displeasure that despite the huge investment by government to combat GBV, there were still cases of its occurrence in some communities, and commended the office of the wife of the governor for putting the program together in a move to further stem the tide of the menace in the society.
Earlier, the representatives of the GBV management committee, including the state’s Commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs Peju Babafemi and the Commissioner for Justice, Mr Dayo Apata encouraged participants to speak up and report any abuse in their communities.