Chigozie Uzosike Stakeholders have called for the establishment of a regulatory body to oversee the full implementation of the Imo State Violence Against Persons Prohibition Law, 2021 in the state. Speaking during a one-day strategic meeting with key stakeholders in Owerri, the Imo State capital on Monday, the Director of Women Affairs in the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare, Dr. Blessing Azubuike, said the ministry anchored the program in partnership with Alliances for Africa.
She hinted that “the objective of the stakeholders’ meeting was to develop a road map and strategies towards establishing the agency.” She added that it was also “to strengthen collaboration and establish an approach that will ensure the speedy implementation of the Imo State VAPP Law.” On the benefits of the VAPP Law Implementation Agency, Juliet Olumuyiwa-Rufai noted “the establishment of the agency would facilitate live-saving efforts.
It would also navigate and coordinate efforts around the law. The agency, when created, would leverage internal and external resources, make work easy and give voice and solidarity. Establishing the agency would attract funding and recognition and improve collaboration and relationship.
” The Program Director of Alliances for Africa, Blessing Duru, hinted that the establishment of the agency would be a veritable way of getting international recognition and donor support, adding that there is a need to increase the level of sensitization around the various state actors, civil society organizations, media, and relevant ministries, and increase the level of networking and partnership. She said that the state government would lose nothing by establishing the agency that would be responsible for the full implementation of the Imo State Violence Against Persons Prohibition Law. She urged security agents, key ministries, NAPTIP, National Orientation Agency, FIDA, and the National Human Rights Commission, among others, to create a gender desk in their offices to make handling issues of violence easier.
One of the participants, Udochukwu Chukwu, said the agency would be self-sustaining because a lot of activities will happen around the agency that would help to address issues of gender-based violence in the state, stressing that the benefits of the agency cannot be overemphasized. A traditional ruler, His Royal Highness, Eze Clinton Uboegbulam-Nze, said there’s a need to increase community sensitization and awareness around the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Law so that the communities will begin to drop certain obnoxious practices which the law condemns. Copyright PUNCH All rights reserved.
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