No fewer than 150 children marched through the streets of Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital to protest the delay by the state House of Assembly in passing the Child Rights Act.
The protesting children, who were between the age range of three and 16, called on the House of Assembly to pass the bill on child rights into law in order to save them from continued harassment from their parents and false prophets.
Some of the placards displayed by the children read, ”Child abandonment is immoral and illegal,” ”Enact Child Rights Act now,” ”Arrest our parents and false prophets,” “Belief in witchcraft is no excuse for child battering” and ”Our governor should call on the State House of Assembly to pass the Child Rights Act.”
Speaking to newsmen on Thursday, the Program Director of Stepping Stone Nigeria; the body that organized the children‘s rally, Mr. Gary Foxcroft, said the state capital was witnessing the first ever rally by children accused and stigmatized as witches.
Foxcroft explained that the children were only demanding that the state government should act swiftly to stop the widespread abandonment, torture and killing of their stigmatized peers in the state.
He said that Akwa Ibom was one of the few states in the country yet to domesticate the Child Rights Act.
Foxcreft said, ”While we do not wish to embarrass the state government, it is clear that the vast majority of the international community see what is happening in Akwa Ibom State with innocent children being labeled as witches as a huge scar on the face of humanity.
”A situation whereby children are being set on fire, buried alive, macheted to death due to this belief simply cannot and must not be tolerated in the 21st Century.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment