Okota Violence: Two Arrested, Others Declared Wanted, Says Force PPRO.

The Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, says the police
have arrested two persons and declared two wanted in connection
with the violence that marred some polling units in the Okota area
of Lagos State during the presidential election.

He made this known on Friday while appearing on The Verdict,
Channels Television’s special broadcast on the elections
coverage.

“The incident that happened at Ago-Okota is currently under
investigation. Until that investigation is concluded conclusively,
I may not be able to speak much on it.

“I can also tell you that there are two persons that are in our
custody. And there are some other persons who are also currently on
our wanted list in relation to what transpired at Ago-Akota,” he
stated.

The Okota violence which occurred on February 23 disrupted the
voting process as electoral materials were destroyed while voters
scampered for safety.

In the videos that trended on the social media, a policeman was
seen rather helpless as hoodlums had a field day with the ballot
boxes at a polling unit in Ago Place way.

But reacting to the role of the police officer, Mba called on
Nigerians to see the positive side of the development.

In doing that, he urged the masses to applaud what he described
as the professionalism of the said policeman.

“Of the policeman that you saw resisting the attempts by the
hoodlums to disrupt the electoral process, I think there are
positives out of it and we should be focusing on those positives
rather than look at things from the negative perspectives.

“You could see that police officer standing his ground. And I
think such police officers should be singled out and described as
heroes of democracy rather than us always looking at negatives. We
should look at the positives. We should applaud that police
officer,” he stated.

Women’s Day: CISLAC Laments Exclusion on Women in
Political Appointments

Today the entire world celebrates women of all races, all
religion and sexual affiliations for the great contributions and
achievement the world has recorded because of women. As the world
celebrates the International Women’s Day, the Civil Society
Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC lends her voice to laud women
across the globe and to use this opportunity to call for social
inclusion of women and girls in the developmental process of all
nations with specific focus to Nigeria. To further buttress our
interest in promoting women, CISLAC is hosting a side event in New
York on the 15th of March, 2019, with the title: Promoting Social
Protection for African Women, to discuss issues affective women’s
development in Africa.

No nation can fully achieve sustainable development without
including women, girls and all vulnerable groups. As the giant of
Africa, with population of women a little higher than that of men,
female headed households almost equal to those of male headed
households, Nigeria is doing itself a disservice by excluding women
in its political and socio-economic development. Women have been
sidelined in the helm of affairs in the country politically as
established in the lopsided elective and appointive positions in
Nigeria. The eight assembly recorded very few women vying for
elective positions and even fewer appointive positions were
recorded for women. This discouraging turn of event has seen even
fewer women vying for elective positions under this political
dispensation. The only female presidential aspirant under this 9th
assembly bowed out under pressure at the dying moment. The 8th
assembly recorded only 6.2% of female senators out of 109 senators,
male senators constituting 9.38%. The house of representatives is
also no different as 22 seats alone were secured by women as
against 360 seats leaving the whooping 338 seats for their male
counterparts.

In the area of education, women also have their fair share of
discrimination as the girl-child school enrolment in the north east
and west remain under 20 and 25 percent respectively, according to
World Bank report. It is said that poverty has the face of a woman
and this myth is yet to be demystified because of extreme cases of
gender disparity, abuse and undermining. How then can a woman/girl
that is not educated function properly and provide for her family?
All these injustices contribute to poverty which in turns affects
the nation as a whole.

Similarly, since the United Nations Commission on the
Elimination of all forms of Violence Against Women (CEDAW) was
ratified in Nigeria, such bill as the Gender and Equal Opportunity
bill which is an adaptation of CEDAW has regularly been thrown out
of the assembly. The Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP)
Act which has been passed is yet to become active or implemented by
the Nigerian government. It appears that domestic violence is even
on the increase even when we have a law that even has sanctions on
offenders to tackle the menace of violence against women. The
National Gender Policy which has also been reviewed to include 50%
affirmative action is only being paid lip service.

We therefore call on the Nigerian government to commence the
implementation of VAPP and the amended National Gender Policy.
We call on the government to ensure that women are carried along
during this political dispensation through 50% appointive position.
We call on the 8th National Assembly to as a matter of urgency pass
the Gender and Equal Opportunity Bill before they exit office.

We condemn all forms of discrimination against women and call on
equitable distribution of resources in favour of women.

We further call on the Nigerian government to become more
responsive in implementation of UBEC and funding of education to
encourage girl-child enrolment and completion of school.

Signed:

Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani)
Executive Director
CISLAC