GENDER RIGHTS VIOLATION: EDO WOMEN PROTEST

Women from different Communities in Edo State in collaboration with Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth (ERA/FoEN) have protested against deforestation, land grabbing and gender rights violation associated with Industrial Plantation Model.

In their protest to the Nigeria Union of Journalists Press Center in Benin City, the women who were mainly from Obaretin, Ologbo and Okomu Communities decried the devastating impacts that the multinational Oil Companies like Okomu and Presco have perpetrated in their Communities.  They said that the arrival of these multinational Oil Companies into their Areas in the name of development has not brought them development,but instead, poverty, hunger, sickness, diseases and even death. They went further to say that the Companies engage in violence against them as a result of their (women) outspokenness against injustice. They gave an instance of one Madam Iyabo Botu from Marioba Community in Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo State who was shot on her knee for protesting against the operations of Okomu Oil in their community. 

According to Madam Oseriemen Anthony who spoke on behalf of her Community, she said, " We are mothers of all, we have right to life, but no life to enjoy, no water, no Health Center, no good market. The Oil Companies have taken over our lands and destroy our crops. How do we take care of children?".

She called on Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) who have been very supportive in the fight against against deforestation, land grabbing and gender rights violations associated with the so called Industrial Plantation Model not to abandon them.

Madam Gladys Osaghae who spoke on behalf of Obaretin Community also lamented that the community land had been taken over by Presco, their crops they use to take care of their families have been destroyed and hunger have virtually taken over the people of the community. She wondered why the indigenes of Obaretin  Community  do not have access to  Obaretin Estate that is 

 named after them. She also appreciated the work ERA/FoEN have been doing for them and appeal to them not to give up because they (ERA/FoEN) are the hope of the oppressed in her Community. 

L-R: Barr. Chima Williams, the Executive Director (ERA/FoEN), Comrade Festus Alenkhe, the Chairman, NUJ, Comrade Egbon, the Secretary, NUJ, while the woman is one of the aggrieved women from the Communities.

In the same vein, Madam Margaret from Odiguetue Community said that they live in abject poverty the Oil Companies in their Community have subjected them. She reteirated  that those days when a child fell sick, the child's mother would just go into the bush, get one or two herbs, squeeze it and give it to the child to drink and immediately the child would be well, but today all those herbs have been destroyed and the so called Heath Center that the so called Oil Company said that they had put in the community is an eyesore. She gave kudos to ERA/FoEN for their unflinching support.

The women then handed over their letter of protest to the Chairman of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ),  Edo State Council, Comrade Festus Alenkhe to help them deliver it to the Governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki.

Some of their itemized demands are; that Edo State and Federal Government of Nigeria should support and invest in community and women led solutions, like agroecology that support food production, local food economy, Community Forest management method that would put the management of the diverse forest ecosystem in the hands of the men and women of the community .

That Government should enact legislative and regulatory reforms that strengthen women rights, related to the expansion of industrial plantations. 

The Chairman of the Edo State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Comrade Festus Alenkhe assured the women that their protest letter would be delivered to the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki immediately as requested. He promised that the NUJ will always give them the necessary assistance in the area of reportage in their pursuit to make life worthy of living in their respective Communities.

Barr. Chima Williams, the Executive Director, and Mrs Rita Uwaka, the Programme Manager, Forest and Biodiversity, ERA/FoEN, who facilitated the event collaborated  the women's grievances and assured them that until their rights and demands are meant by the multinational companies,  ERA/FoEN would not give up the struggle to give them a better life.

Barr. Chima Williams also appreciated the NUJ ably led by Comrade Festus Alenkhe and solicited for more synergy between ERA/FoEN and Edo State Council of NUJ.

L-R: Barr. Chima Williams, the Executive Director, Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) and Comrade Francis Akhigbe, the Publisher/Editor- in-Chief, The PEN MEDIA Online/Magazine