A non-governmental organization, Safehaven Development Initiative, has described Female Genital Mutilation as evil and wickedness perpetrated against women and girls, urging communities to desist from indulging in the practice. The Executive Director, Margaret Onah-Nnang, said this during a media roundtable organised by the NGO, supported by Global Media Campaign to End FGM and Frontline Ending FGM. According to her, “Female genital mutilation is the `dis-functioning’ of the sexual organ of women. Women have the right to have sexual pleasure just as men, yet they cut women to drive them from having many sexual partners.”
Also speaking at the event, State Secretary, Child Protection Network, Lagos Chapter, Mr. Rasheed Awofeso, said that FGM is a crime and abuse of the girl-child. Awofeso said that cutting the genital part of a woman was not ideal and that the law and humanity were against it. He tasked the media with community sensitisation against the act by letting people know the health implications of its aftermath. On his part, the community head of Ishaga Adesola town, Iju Ojokoro, Ifako-Ijaiye local government area, Baale Makinde Adesola, said that the practice was not traditionally approved. He noted that it was also not medically advisable for people to indulge in the practice because it does great damage to the female child. “I preach against it in my community and tell them that they don’t have the right to do it,” he said. (NAN)