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Afrihealth Optonet Association Condemns Nigerian Lawyer’s Battering of His Pharmacist Wife, Calls for Justice

 PRESS STATEMENT

 

AHOA Condemns Nigerian Lawyer’s Battering of His Pharmacist Wife, Calls for Justice 

Over the last two days, the attention of the Afrihealth Optonet Association (AHOA) has been drawn to a trending horrendous video of a visibly helpless woman being battered by a man and thrown out of her home, in the thick of the night. Further statements by the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) and the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) provided that the man in the said video is one Nigerian lawyer Barr. Ekere Ebong while the victim is his wife Pharmacist (Mrs.) Kufre Ebong. This ugly incident took place in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.

Afrihealth Optonet Association (AHOA) condemns in its totality, the wicked and dehumanizing actions that were inflicted on the body and psyche of the Pharmacist (Mrs.) Kufre Ebong. Coming just within few days after the end of AHOA’s weekslong activities to commemorate the world’s ’16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence (GBV)’, which started with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) on Saturday 25 November 2023; AHOA hereby roundly condemns this action. We commend the very patriotic acts of the neighbours of the couple who came to the rescue of the Pharmacist (Mrs.) Kufre Ebong brought this dastardly reprehensible act to the attention of the public.

While commending the Government of  Nigeria for the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) law, we urge the Nigerian government under His Excellency President Bola Tinubu, GCFR, to support the calls by AHOA and Every Woman Coalition, for an Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) which will specifically address Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) in Nigeria and all over the World. We are pleased that following the advocacy by AHOA two years ago, President Muhammadu Buhari gave Nigeria’s support to the efforts to bring in the Optional Protocol. We urge President Tinubu to urgently bring this up at the next earliest opportunity at both the African Union and United Nations General Assembly. We acknowledge the efforts of the government of Akwa Ibom State in eliminating this scourge of GBV.

We call for a thorough investigation, immediate arrest, and diligent prosecution of the perpetrator(s) of the humiliating violence inflicted on the Pharmacist (Mrs.) Kufre Ebong. We are against any plea bargain in this matter, as we believe that dispensing the full weight of the law will serve as a deterrent to further abuses in several places. We also call for the public to be allowed to witness the court proceedings on this incident. Enough is enough! Say No, to GBV.

Signed

Dr. Uzodinma Adirieje

CEO, AHOA