The PDP Campaign organization has condemned the brutalization of women who organized peaceful protest and prayer for the women folks in the state against sudden widowhood recently in Owerri by agents of the Imo State Government.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Sunday, the Campaign Director of Media and Publicity, Femi Fani-Kayode, said the peaceful solidarity protest embarked upon by the Imo Widows Association, Jesus Triumphant Widows Association and Amuzi widows Association, etc., was in support of one of their own and current Minister of State for Education, Professor (Mrs) Viola Onwuliri, a committed party leader in Imo State.
Fani-Kayode gave the account of what happened, “The women, in their thousands, all dressed in black had converged on the Roundabout, about three kilometres away from Government House, Owerri, as early as 8 am singing solidarity songs in support of our presidential candidate, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and Professor Viola Onwuliri.
“It is pertinent to point out the fact that this solidarity march came exactly one week after the All Progressives Congress (APC) women, dressed in their uniform, held a protest rally, without any hindrance by the state government, against President Jonathan and Professor Onwuliri in Owerri.
“Sadly, news of the march that was organised by the widows in support of President Jonathan was not received very well by the governor and the authorities in Imo state. Instead of protecting the widows and affording them their full constitutional rights, including the right to assemble, march and protest, well-armed hired thugs, who emerged from inside Government House, unleashed extreme violence on the harmless women in a despicable and frightful manner.
“Consequently they inflicted life-threatening and severe injuries on a large number of the widows. They were brutal, callous and unrelenting and they refused to exercise any restraint as they unleashed the most barbaric form of violence and fury on the helpless widows. Many of the women were badly wounded and still remain in the hospital.
“Others were traumatised and brutalised. Despite their screams, pleas and tears, the perpetrators refused to stop inflicting violence on them and instead they increased the brutality and fury of the attack. Some of the women were abducted and taken to Government House where they were further manhandled and abused.”
Fani-Kayode, noted that the “Owerri saga is a reflection of the larger picture of the APC and its presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari. Buhari’s aversion to women’s rights and women’s equality is well known and need not be documented here.
“This is a man who has stated clearly that if he is elected as President of Nigeria, one of the first things that he will do is to scrap the office of the First Lady. This is a man who never appointed any woman in his cabinet when he was military Head of State and neither did he do anything notable for women whilst he was a Federal Minister of Petroleum or Head of the Petroleum Trust Fund.”
He therefore, called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to act expeditiously on the petition sent to him by the leaders of the widowed women associations by investigating the attacks on them, arresting the masterminds of the barbaric act and prosecuting them in accordance with the law of the land.
The PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation also called on General Buhari and the Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, to tender an unreserved apology to the widows of Imo state within a matter of days.
