Women groups in the country have called on Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal to ensure the prosecution of the suspects in the gruesome murder of Deborah Yakubu, a 200 level student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto.
The women said a positive action must be taken to forestall future occurrence.
This was contained in a statement signed by Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi
Executive Director, Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre, WARDC, On behalf of 300 organisations and members of the Womanifesto.
The statement reads in part:
“We therefore call on the Sokoto Governor Aminu Tambuwal to take immediate steps beyond condemning this barbaric act and collaborate with the Nigeria Police and other relevant Federal law enforcement and judicial establishments to commence prosecutorial action against all the identified murderers and complicit school officials of Shehu Shagari College of Education who collaborated to execute and burn Miss Samuel. A positive action to forestall future occurrences.
“We also call on the Attorney General and Minister of Justice of the Federation to take a public interest in this matter alongside the stalled cases of prosecution of the killers of Mrs Olawale and Agbaheme respectively.
“Womanifesto demands a comprehensive Justice Sector and System Reform to strengthen law and enforcement especially as it concerns the rights of women. The current sector and system mostly exonerates men for crimes against women and girls and this must stop.
“We also demand the declaration of a State of Emergency on the killings of women and girls and a concerted and collective callout of all States which have not implemented the VAP Act 2015.
” Nigerian Women and girls must not continue to be endangered species thereby threatening the bright future of our country.
“We call on religious leaders in Sokoto and beyond to speak out against this dastardly act. Religious bodies and leaders have a moral responsibility to foster and promote peace, religious freedoms and eschew intolerance among the adherents of their faiths. Nigerians want to see religious leaders play a unifying role and not champion divisions among the faiths.
“Finally, Womanifesto finds the current fixation of Nigeria’s public officials and other politicians with the 2023 elections in a country which has many evident signs of being on the brink of collapse, an unkind diversion of energy that should be focused on serving the citizens.
“To ignore the daily killings of Nigerians happening in States across the country at a time like this amounts to a futile exercise of “majoring in the minor” and portends danger for the country.
“We say, “Enough is enough!” and insist that as citizens of this country our rights as women are as equal to that accorded every other citizen.”