Wife of the Executive governor of Edo State, Mrs. Betsy Obaseki, on
Thursday, called on all relevant stakeholders to join in the fight to
end violence against children across the country while proposing
remand homes for abusive parents.
She made the call at the official launch of the Edo State Priority
Response Plan to End Violence Against Children in Benin City.
Mrs. Obaseki said the fight to end violence against children in the
country must not be the sole responsibility of the government alone
adding that all hands must be on deck to put a halt to its rise
without minding whose horse is gorged provided the children are free
from the hands of the abusers.
“This is a fight not just for the government but for everyone in the
society. We should all look out for our children.
“There is no normal parent except that parent is abnormal and in that
case, he should be confined to an asylum and be treated. No normal
parent will have a child and even dared to see that child is abused in
any form even or a second and so, everything that we need to do in
this state to make sure this does not happen anymore, our children are
no longer abused even if means setting up remand homes for abusive
adults in this state, we will set it up and call it the home of shame.
So that there will be no hiding place for abusive parents in this
state”, she said.
She said effort would be made to ensure that those who are abused are
given prior attention at government owned hospitals across the state
and that they should report any health workers who tend to extort
money from them before attending to them adding that such worker would
be sanctioned severely.
“I am impressed by the lady who made the presentation from the child
protection network and i have taken away few things from her
presentation.
” I was discussing with the head of service and the things that are
needed to be corrected in our state to ensure the success of this
programme will be done. We will speak to our husbands, the governor
and the deputy governor to ensure that in government owned hospitals
across this state it must be free and any health officials who is
caught asking for amount of money from anyone so abused and needing
support, will have serious recourse to face from henceforth. I am
making that promise and I am sure the governor will back us up”, she
said.
Mrs. Obaseki said the state government is poised to make the state a
benchmark for others to emulate in its fight to end violence against
children just as it has done in its fight against malaria in the
recent time that has made it received commendation from the federal
minister of health.
“We mean this course from the depth of our beings. We are set to
ensure that the incident of violence against children in Edo State
reduces to the barest minimum and by the grace of God, the result here
will become a benchmark for the people of this country.
” As already,we have begun to experience i recalled that the federal
minister of health was so impressed with our own effort when the
launch of mosquito nets initiative was carried out across the country.
“The Edo experience was so phenomenon that the minister commended us.
So we intend to be number one in any initiative that we will be
undertaken because Edo must be number one”, she said.
Earlier, the Edo State governor, represented by his deputy, Philip
Shuaibu blamed poverty as one of the factors leading to the rise of
violence against children in the country.
He said the current administration has made effort to improve the
living condition of the people by creating a conducive evironment for
businesses to thrive in the state.