Order youths to remove roof of his house, vow to deal with him
Elders of the Adedayo Oluwole Adenuga family of Ijebu , Ogun State have declared one of their sons, Adedayo Oluwole Adenuga and his immediate family members wanted for preventing them from carrying out circumcision rites, now known as Female Genital Multilation, on his daughter and escaping from the community with both his wife and daughter.
Consequently ,the family elders order youth members of the family to remove the roof of the House inherited by Adedayo Oluwole Adenuga from his late father, as part of the reprisals and sanctions against him and his runaway wife and daughter.
A brother to Adedayo Oluwole Adenuga, who pleaded anonymity disclosed this development to our reporter .
According to the brother , Adedayo Oluwole Adenuga was forced to leave Nigeria along with his immediate family members to protect his daughter from the elders in the family been on enforcing the circumcision on her.
But following the inability of the Adedayo elders to locate Adedayo Oluwole Adenuga his wife and daughter some years ago , they declared been missing and wanted.
Adenuga’s anonymous brother ,who claimed himself lost a daughter to circumcision rites( FGM) with or without the parents consent and ordered the youths in the family to remove the roof of the house he inherited from their deceased father.
He said it had been laid down by their late progenitors that the family tradition of circumcision rites ( FGM) must be performed on every female child to avoid some calamities in the family.
He said , And if the procedure is refused by any parent such an individual should not have access to any benefit and the elders in the family should suspend every benefit to individual as laid down by our forefahers More so, the rites must be performed whether the parents agree to it or not. It must be done by force.
“I lost my second child on November 10, 2004 to this same procedure due to the excessive pain,bleeding and the infection suffered by my daughter ,it’s so painful period to me and my wife . But there’s nothing we could do, we couldn’t told the elders who performed the circumcision rites on her responsible . We just had to take the painful and unfortunate death of our daughter as our own fate”.
He , however appealed to Government at all levels as well as Non-Governmental Organisation in Nigeria to urgently intervene and help to stop the continued perpetration of FGM by family elders under the guise of carrying out circumcision rites on female children.
He added that it’s unfortunate that his brother would be denied his benefits and freedom to live in any part of the country following his declaration by the family elders as a wanted person along with his wife and daughter over FGM issues, and lives lost to the menace without the authorities and other relevant bodies taking urgent action against the perpetrators.
” Our female newborn deserves better lives that going through this procedure of pain , bleeding and eventual denial of life and freedom”, he said.
Over 120 million Nigerian women and girls have undergone FGM which ultimately results in premature death as well as leaves many females physically and emotionally damaged.
Everyday in many parts of Nigeria , tales abound of the many girls and women forced to undergo FGM.
UNICEF has warned that FGM is on the rise among Nigerian girls aged 0–14.
Nigeria , due to her large population , has the highest number of FGM.
