Hon. Janet Adeyemi, National President, Women in Mining Nigeria.
By David Okpashi
LAFIA — Women in Mining in Nigeria, a non governmental Organization committed to the promotion of women inclusion in governance, fight against violence, rape and other forms of molestation ,on Thursday, urged the federal, states, and other relevant agencies to end violence against women in Nigeria.
This is as they have vowed to fight the scourge through the deployment of resources to ensure that increased cases of rape against women in Nasarawa and other parts of the country is tackled
Speaking at a two-day sensitization workshop for members of the organization in Lafia, Nasarawa state, the National president of the organization, Engineer Janet Adeyemi, said the organization,rooted in community MIMIN, would stop at nothing to tackle sexual abuse, rape and other forms of molestation women, children are facing in the country.
” We are calling on the federal, states and other agencies saddled with the responsibility of protecting female gender from sexual violence in Nigeria to see to the end of women molestation in Nigeria,especially Nasarawa state where women involved were constantly being molested, raped because of their engagement in mining activities”.
“Our activities revolve around the principles of partnership, and a right base approach, particularly women and children in mining. Our engagement is anchored on dialogue, safety for our women especially those in mining activities across the country”.
“We believe in the transformative power of community engagement upon which we are imploying the government at all levels to rise to the challenges confronting our women in Nigeria.
“We have a membership of over 5, 000 cutting across artisans and small scale miners who need adequate protection from all forms of violence”.
” We are concerned that women, girls are under serious molestation, rape in Nasarawa state where sexual and gender violence are in increase due to their involvement in mining activities.
“We therefore, appeal to both the federal, state and others involved in the protection of women to step up against women molestation”.
“WIMIN in collaborations with Ford Foundation, has initiated programme in Nasarawa state called ‘catalyzing change,Eliminating Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGB) in mining host communities”.
“This is aimed at strengthening the regulatory mechanism to check the undermining activities especially the foreign investors taking advantage of the women doing minimal jobs in the mining sector.
The National president of MIMIN announced that in order to effectively tackle the scourge, and in the interest of the female miners, the Organization had developed a softwaresl called ‘WIMRIGHT’ to serve as platform for reporting cases of abuse against women in the mining sector.
“In the interest of female miners at the grassroots we have established a dedicated hotlines for reporting cases of abuse across the country”
“Let me reiterate my commitment to ensuring that the mining space in Nigeria is open and safe for all women. We must join hands to eradicate violence against women in Nigeria”, she said.
