Lorine Emenike
The international federation of women lawyers FIDA has raised the alarm over the growing number of male children who suffer violence and sexual abuse.
State Chairperson of FIDA in Rivers state, Ngozi Odunkwe Ehosevbe, at the monthly sensitization on rape at Rumuokwrushi community, called on women to also watch and place importance to educating the male children about sex.
She said “The number of reported cases of sexual abuses on male children is on the increase.
“It has become paramount that the women are sensitized in terms of the provisions of violence against person’s bill which is currently before the state House of Assembly so that they know what the content of this bill is.
‘’Having interacted with the women, we have deduced that their hearts are crying out particularly in the area of rape. The women are not happy about how their little children are being defiled, how the young ones are being raped and one thing that we did refresh our minds to is that it’s not just the girl child alone that is raped but that the boy child is also being raped and abused.
‘’We have quite a number of matters before us where you find that some of these boys have been abused sexually and otherwise, so having interacted with them, they have given their word that they are going to speak out. For some of them, it became a great concern what do they do with the police as oftentimes, matters are reported to the police but they do not come to the broad daylight and that it fizzles out but we have assured them that if they can only speak out within the purvey of the law, that justice will always be meted out”. She added’
Some of the community women from Rumuokwrushi commended FIDA for their efforts in ensuring that cases of rape get attention in the state and urged them to do more.
