AN OPEN LETTER TO THE DELTA STATE GOVERNMENT
To: The Delta State Government.
From: The Women for 35% Initiative | AJU Morgan Elumelu Foundation (AMEF)
Subject: URGENT CALL TO ACTION: CONDEMNATION OF THE BARBARIC ASSAULTS IN OZORO AND THE PROTECTION OF WOMEN’S DIGNITY
Your Excellency,
The Women for 35% Initiative, under the AJU Morgan Elumelu Foundation (AMEF), writes to you today with a heavy heart and a burning sense of outrage. Our mission is to empower women, secure their place in leadership, and ensure their safety within the Nigerian state. However, leadership is impossible where basic safety and dignity are non-existent.
The recent, harrowing reports emanating from Ozoro, Isoko North LGA, regarding the alleged “Alue-Do” festival, increasingly known by the public as a “Rape Festival” are an affront to humanity. The viral accounts of systemic sexual harassment, public molestation, and the forced confinement of women under the guise of “tradition” are not just cultural aberrations; they are criminal acts and a direct violation of the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act (VAPP).
Our Position
We categorically reject any attempt to cloak gender-based violence in the mantle of “culture” or “tradition.”
Culture must evolve: Any tradition that requires the subjugation, terrorization, or violation of women is obsolete and has no place in a 21st-century Delta State.
Security is a Right: The reports that female students and residents were warned to stay indoors for their own safety while men roamed the streets to commit assaults indicate a breakdown of law and order.
Our Demands
The Women for 35% Initiative, alongside our Convener, Amb. AJU Elumelu-James, calls on the Delta State Government to:
Swift Prosecution: We acknowledge the initial arrests made by the Delta State Police Command. We demand that these individuals, including the organizers, face the full weight of the law to serve as a deterrent.
Official Proscription: We urge the State Government to formally review and, if necessary, proscribe any “cultural” activities that promote or permit physical and sexual assault against women.
Victim Support: Provide immediate medical, psychological, and legal support to the survivors of these assaults in Ozoro.
Security Guarantee: Ensure that such “festivals” never again hold the women of Delta State hostage in their own homes.
Conclusion
Your Excellency, Delta State has always been a beacon of progress in the Niger Delta. Do not let the actions of a few regressive elements tarnish the “MORE” agenda. We cannot build a prosperous state on the broken spirits of its women.
We are watching. The world is watching. We await your decisive action to prove that in Delta State, Her Voice, Her Vote, and Her Body are sacrosanct.
Signed,
The Leadership,
Women for 35% Initiative
An Initiative of the AJU Morgan Elumelu Foundation (AMEF)
“Her Voice, Her Vote, Her Future”
