The United Nations Children’s Fund has urged law enforcers in Nigeria to prosecute perpetrators of female genital mutilation against children in accordance to the laws prohibiting the practice to serve as deterrence to others so as to end the practice.
This was the thrust of a three-day training for law enforcement agents, judicial officers and government agencies.
The trainees were drawn from Osun, Ekiti and Oyo States and trained on enforcement of legal framework for the elimination of Female Genital Mutilation.
It was held in Akure, Ondo State.
The training was organised by the Child Rights Information Bureau of the Federal Ministry of Information in collaboration with UNICEF to strengthen the knowledge of law enforcement agents, judicial officers, End-FGM desk officers and other government officials on implementation and enforcement of Anti-FGM laws.
UNICEF Child Protection Specialist, Nkiru Maduechesi, said the FGM is one of the worst human rights violations and that perpetrators should be arrested and prosecuted according to the law.
Maduechesi said with the intervention of UNICEF in the five states with high prevalence of FGM practice, 953 communities have denounced the practice and publicly declared FGM abandonment.
The five states in the South West and South East were Ekiti, Imo, Osun, Oyo, Imo and Ebonyi.
She noted that the rate of FGM practice in the five states reduced drastically between 2013 and 2018 according to Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey.
Maduechesi urged law enforcers to take laws that prohibited FGM practice very serious and bring FGM perpetrators to justice in order to eliminate the practice.
UNICEF Senior Programme Associate for Child Protection Section and Focal Point for the Female Genital Mutilation programme, Phydelia Abbas, said more still needed to be done to ensure total eradication of FGM practice in Nigeria.
Quoting the NDHS data, Abbas said the FGM prevalence rate of 72 per cent in 2013 in Ekiti State reduced to 57.9 per centin 2018.
She added that the prevalence rate of 78 per cent in Osun State in 2013 reduced to 45.9 per cent in 2018 and that Oyo State moved down from 66 per cent in 2013 to 31.1 per cent as at 2018.
She said the prevalence rate in Imo State as at 2013 was 68 per cent and that it reduced to 61.7 per cent in 2018, while Ebonyi’s 74 per cent prevalence came down to 53.2 per cent as at 2018.
Abbas said efforts to end the FGM would not stop until the practice becomes a thing of the past and no child is cut again.
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