By CHARLES IWUOHA

Survivors of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) in Abakaliki Local Government Area, Ebonyi State have called on government agencies and NGOs to ensure that the laws already available against perpetrators of FGM/C are implemented.

They asked that penalties prescribed for those who undertake genital mutilation and the collaborators should be made to be relatively stiff for that to be able to serve as a deterrent to others.

The survivors, women and girls, randomly drawn from Abakaliki Council Area spoke to our Correspondent who was on facts finding on the situation as it concerns FGM/C in the Local Government Area.

Nweke said that some others use warm water, and Vaseline jelly to mutilate their girls.

Another survivor; a JSS 1 student who merely gave her name as Joan said, she was forcefully cut at the age of 10 but that she had to invite their Village Head to stop her mother from cutting her younger sister because she was convinced of the dangers associated with the mutilation after she participated in a workshop in Abakaliki.

An FGM Champion in the Nkaliki community, Mrs. Helen Uwa said the Abakaliki Urban communities, more than those in the far-to-reach areas where their belief and traditional commitment to FGM/C is relatively lower.

Chief Emmanuel Nwangele, Chairman of the Abakaiki council said the council had at any chances spoken to their women, traditional rulers on the dangers of FGM/C, said it was drastically being reduced in the council area.

He noted that wife of the State Governor, Mrs. Rachel Umahi, had taken on the fight against the FGM/C hence the council areas had replicated the campaigns in their Local Government Areas.

Recall that Female genital mutilation (FGM) comprises all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. The practice is mostly carried out by traditional practitioners. In several settings, there is evidence suggesting greater involvement of health care providers in performing FGM due to the belief that the procedure is safer when medicalized. It is strongly urged that health care providers should perform FGM.

FGM is recognized internationally as a violation of the human rights of girls and women. It reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes, and constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against girls and women. It is nearly always carried out on minors and is a violation of the rights of children.

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