Women lawyers, Lagos monarch join forces against right abuses

The Ojora of Ijora Kingdom, King Abdul-Fatai Aremu Aromire has agreed to partner the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) to empower women, girl child, fight domestic violence and all forms of abuses to attain peace in the society.

The agreement was sealed when members of the association led by the secretary, Mrs Phil Nneji, visited the monarch in Ijora as part of their activities for community outreach.

Others in the team were Mrs Abimbola Badia Jack Oladugba, Mrs Aramide Keshinro and Mrs Adero Fadahunsi.

King Aromire promised to pave the way for a forum where women in the community would interact with FIDA on issues affecting them and in particular, marital issues.

He also promised to assist them to realise their objectives and goals of ensuring the protection of the women, children and the indigent in the community.

Earlier, Nneji told the king that FIDA was very passionate about women and children and that this explained why they were seeking to protect and empower them.

Nneji said in furtherance of the association’s objectives, its members carry out pro-bono services which involves free legal representation for indigent litigants.

She said they also hold legal clinics where they listen to problems of the people and use Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to mediate and resolve such problems.

“Because we have culture, we preach peace. We use the slogan, ‘Orange the World’. Through this platform, we preach peace all over the world. Starting from November 25, as decided by the United Nations, we have been preaching peace and against gender violence.

“We reach out to community leaders like you, in their capacity as the King, for impact and for there to be peace in every community. Because there is so much poverty around, we have had to reach out to ensure peace at home”, Nneji said.

She explained that the Child Rights Act was put in place by government to protect children and that the law was translated to so many languages for mothers to be able to read and create awareness in them.

She lamented that so many things were happening which were unheard of in the past like “husbands killing wives, child defilement, rape, violence at home.

“We have this culture of keeping quiet which has caused the death of many and this is why we are reaching out to people to break the culture of silence and ‘shout and speak out’ wherever they occur.”

According to her, because unemployment is high, particularly amongst women, “FIDA carries out a lot of empowerment programmes. “We do this because we believe when you empower a woman, you have empowered the family and there would be less problems at home”, Nneji explained.

Another member of the team, Mrs Abimbola, told the Ojora of Ijora Kingdom, Oba Aromire, that when they go out on community outreach and for impact, they invite women and children and educate them.

“We create awareness in them and they open up to us and we take up their matter with the police up to the court and get the offender prosecuted”.

Mrs Abimbola urged the monarch to create the opportunity for FIDA to move its legal clinic to Ijora Badia to speak with the women and their children, some of whom may be suffereing violations and defilements, while discouraging women to respect their husbands to ensure peace at home.

Mrs Fadahunsi said not all cases are taken up to the court explaining that through mediation, a number of cases have been resolved and peace restored to most homes.