Protect our rights, protesting widows urge N’Assembly

Some widows on Monday in Abuja lamented they suffer stigmatisation due to some cultural practices across the country.

The protesters, who wielded placards with different inscriptions, complained that they had been physically and mentally abused, adding that some of them had been stripped of their late husbands’ assets.

They, however, called on the National Assembly to fast-track the passage of the bill seeking the amendment of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act 2015 to protect the rights of widows across the country.

Speaking on behalf of the women, the President of Aegis Widows Support Network, Bibiana Okereafor, said widows in the country could not continue to bear the abuse against them.

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She said, “The stigmatisation against widows in Nigeria is getting worse by the day. Despite being an old practice that should have been a thing of the past, it is painful that widows in some states of the federation are still being denied access to properties and in some cases denied access to their children without any known legal backing.

“Recently, in Anambra, a young woman was paraded naked after the death of her husband; they accused her of having extra-marital affairs which they said caused the death of her husband. The lists are endless. We get to bear having widows continue to be subjected to these physical and emotional abuses in the name of cultural practices.

“We want to call on the National Assembly and the Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, to take immediate action to fast-track the passage of this all-important bill before the end of the Ninth Assembly.”

On her part, the Founder of Women Aspire Empowerment Initiative Ebere Ulelu-Obiesie, who also joined the protesters, called for the establishment of a commission to properly address the abuse widows in the country face.

She said, “The creation of a Widows Affairs Commission or a Widow’s Affairs Unit could be created within the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, the women ministry in the 36 states of the federation, and the local government headquarters.”