BY EMMANUEL IKPE, UYO
A state-of-the-art Sexual Assault Referral Center for Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District has been commissioned for use at the Ikot Ekpene General Hospital.
Christened “Restoration Clinic” which will cater for all victims of sexual assault in the senatorial district, it was inaugurated at the weekend by the Akwa Ibom State ,Deputy Governor, Mr. Moses Ekpo.
Speaking, Mr. Ekpo noted that “statistics show that one in every four girls and one in every ten boys in Nigeria had experienced sexual violence before the age of 18”, saying with the unveiling of the center, both physiological and psychological trauma experienced by victims of violence would be attended to.
Adding that the society was facing dangerous circumstances where families are daily confronted with the specter of despicable and atrocious activities perpetrated by debased men, commended the governor’s wife, Dr. Mrs Martha Udom Emmanuel for rising to the occasion by continually fighting the monstrous elements in the state.
On her part, the wife of Akwa Ibom Governor, Dr. Mrs. Martha Udom Emmanuel who is the Chairperson of the State Gender Based Management Committee, in her remarks at the event said the well-furnished center would take care of victims of sexual and gender based assaults in the senatorial district.
While noting that the Center was the first government owned facility, she added that it would definitely complement Agape Center at Immanuel Hospital in Eket Senatorial district which has been in operation for a while, and Heartland Alliance Center in Uyo senatorial district.
The Family Life and Youth Reorientation Programme (FEYReP) boss while thanking the Commissioner for Health and the management of the Hospital for donating the Center, said patients at the center would be treated “free of charge.”
“All victims of sexual assaults and domestic violence in Ikot Ekpene senatorial district would be treated free of charge at this center, no money is required for treatment in this facility,” Dr. Emmanuel said.
In their separate goodwill remarks, the Hon. Commissioner for Health, Professor Augustine Umoh, her Women Affairs counterpart, Dr. Ini Adiakpan, that of Labour and Manpower, Mr. Aniefiok Nkom, and the Chief Medical Director of Ikot Ekpene General Hospital, Dr. Nene Andem, all averred that sexual and gender based violence was not just crime against humanity but against God.
They said that the advantage of having a referral center in the hospital was to aid treatment of victims of sexual assaults, and also thanked the State Governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel for massively renovating the medical facility.
Others who spoke at the event were the executive chairman of Ikot Ekpene local government area, Hon. Unyime Etim, the Paramount Ruler of Ikot Ekpene, HRM Obong Okon Ukut, and a representative of RISE project, Mr. Daniel Akpere.