By Precious Oham
The Adolescents Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment, AGILE, on Friday, continued their sensitization programme tour across the 16 Local Government Areas, LGA, of Ekiti State.
At a one-day Stakeholders Town Hall meeting in Ilejemeje-Ekiti LGA, Vice Chairman of the Council Area, Hon. Abiodun Toluwalase tasked residents of the area to utilize the opportunity towards enhancing girl-child education.
Hon. Toluwalase urged government to enact stringent laws to nip the incessant Gender-Based-Violence against women adding that the situation is worrisome.
His words: “We should make use of the information and work on it because this is a laudable project. What is expected of us as individuals, parents, community and as a local government is to grab this opportunity and make sure we too contribute more to this programme.
“Generally, the situation in the whole world is worrisome. You can see teenagers of 12 and 13 years being impregnated and I know most of these men who are involved in this act are matured men.
“My advice is that government should be more stringent. They should penalize not only the girl that was impregnated, the man who has done that act should be given capital punishment because we cannot fold our hands and see things go this way.”
Meanwhile, the AGILE Deputy Project Coordinator, Mr. Toyin Osaleye reiterated that Ekiti State happens to be the only state in the South region to benefit from this programme.
While charging residents to be a part of the project aimed at enhancing adolescents girls education, he noted that the project is divided into three components.
Osaleye said: “It is only Ekiti that comes from the South that is benefiting from the project. This project is being distributed into three major components; we have the component one, two and three.
“Under the component one, where we have our renovations in schools. In all the 203 secondary schools in Ekiti State, we have different types of projects going on there. In some schools there will be doing fencing, some we buy computers to their computer laboratories, some we build toilets for both boys and girls.”
Highlights of the programme were sensitisation sessions by various AGILE Resource Speakers on Life Skills, Digital Skills, Gender Based Violence, Grievances Redress Mechanism among others.
The programme had in attendance, stakeholders such as students, artisans, business women and men; market women, youths, principals of secondary schools, teachers, traditional and religious leaders.