Senate in session
The Senate on Thursday, summoned the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Mr Ibrahim Idris and the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, over the kidnap of secondary school girls in Yobe and Borno States respectively.
Specifically, the security chiefs are to appear before the Joint Committees on Police Affairs, Security and Intelligence and to brief it on operational strategies to rescue the abducted school girls.
The resolutions followed a motion moved by Sen. Binta Garba (APC, Adamawa State) during plenary.
It would be recalled that on Feb. 21, over 100 school girls from Government Girls Science Technical College, Dapchi, Busari Local Government Area of Yobe, were abducted by suspected Boko Haram terrorists.
The motion, which was read by Deputy Minority Whip, Biodun Olujimi, on behalf of Garba, was in commemoration of the International Women’s Day.
She noted that policies were needed to promote women’s access to education, innovative technologies and practices, decent work, climate-resilient jobs and protect them from violence in schools and work places.
The lawmaker expressed concern that if the trend was left unchecked, girl child education, which is part of the objective of goal Number Four of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) would have been lost in Nigeria even before the 2030 target year.
She said: “The implementation of policies that prohibits violence against women and girls and promote thegirl-child education is still very poor.
“Practices such as violence against women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking, sexual and other types of exploitation, early child and forced marriage, female genital mutilation are still being practiced.
“A pattern is gradually being established which clearly indicates that the objectives of the Boko Haram Insurgents is to deprive young girls of school age from pursuing education,” she said.
Contributing, Sen. Atai Aidoko (PDP- Kogi) noted that women needed to be celebrated for their unique roles in the society, lamenting that they had long been marginalised, shortchanged and therefore needed to be supported.
This, he said had become necessary “because women and children are always the victims of terrorism, kidnapping and war”, adding that we needed to protect our women.
In his remarks, the Deputy President of the Senate, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the plenary, agreed that women needed to be celebrated due to their unique accomplishments in all facets of life.
