Women protest in Ogun over child marriage

Women in their hundreds, on Wednesday, in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, protested the resolution of the upper legislative chamber on child marriage.
The protesters, under the aegis of Concerned Women Forum, which included various women groups, market women and men, religious groups, and civil society groups across the state.

Armed with placards with various inscriptions such as “give us education, not marriage,” “child marriage is barbaric, no to it,” “woe to husbands of underage, they are evils,” “Ogun children reject child marriage.”

Leader of the protesters, Chief (Mrs) Alaba Lawson, while speaking during the protest held at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Secretariat, Iwe Iroyin House, Oke Ilewo, Abeokuta, lamented that child marriage would deprive a girl-child from being educated.

Lawson, who is the Iyalode of Yorubaland, maintained that the lawmakers should focussed their attention on poverty reduction.

The Egba chief urged President Goodluck Jonathan to join Nigerians in kicking against the resolution calling on Nigerians to vote wisely during the next elections.

Also speaking, state chairman of the NUJ, Comrade Wole Shokunbi, described the resolution of the Senate as “disheartening,” lamenting that the lawmakers should embark on policies that would better the lives of Nigerians.

He implored the lawmakers to resend the decision and uphold the morality and sanctity of the country, which he said would ensure the unity of the country.

“We are imploring our legislators both at the upper and the lower chambers not to pass a bill of immorality. We want them to pass a law that would compel the executive to make good policies,” Shokunbi said.