MARGARET CHIDERA
The First Lady and wife of Adamawa State Governor, who also doubles as champion of Gender Based Violence (GBV), Hajiya Lami Ahmadu Fintiri, has condemned in strong terms, the physical and mental injuries inflicted upon a mother of three; a female journalist working with Adamawa Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Yola, Nafeesah Aliyu.
The oppressive act, which was perpetrated by her husband, a dismissed staff of PHCN in Yola, was regarded as barbaric, inhuman, archaic and unacceptable by the first lady.
Hajiya Lami posited that, “in this 21st century, when the campaign against gender-based violence and domestic violence is taking centre stage in order to eradicate such dehumanising practices globally, such shameful actions will never be condoned in any ramification.”
In a statement issued by her Press Secretary/Information Officer, Mary Adamu, the statement read that Adamawa State, being one of the signatories to the Violent Act Persons Prohibition (VAPP), to which all Governors’ wives are championing, and which Hajiya Lami Fintiri is a member, vowed to leave no stone unturned in the current Nafeesa Vandi’s case.
Lami said she will never allow any other GBV case to be swept under the carpet, but will ensure that justice always prevails, serving as deterant to others.
Lami, in the statement, further added that it is even more pathetic realising that the victim, who assumed another role of fending for the family after the loss of her husband’s job, would be subjected to such manner of treatment. She regretted that instead of receiving appreciation and accolades, what she received in return was battery.
The wife of the governor called on women, wives, mothers and daughters, to always speak up whenever such ill treatment is meted to them or on any woman, so as to stem the rising cases of domestic violence and gender-based violence in the society.
It would be recalled that she, in a recently-organised survivor fund programme, empowered over 50 survivors of rape and GBV victims, who are women and girls with the sum of N50,000 each from the three Senatorial zones of the state, so as to encourage them to start up petty businesses in order to be self-reliant in the society.
