Kogi Reiterates Commitment to Child Rights Act

Ibrahim.Oyewale, Lokoja

The Kogi State Government has restated its commitment to inspiring greater awareness and practice of children’s rights in line with the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

The Governor of Benue State, Mr. Yahaya Bello. who disclosed this while speaking during the 5th Inauguration of the Kogi State Children’s Parliament held at Lugard House at weekend in Lokoja, said the children are the greater tomorrow and need to prepare them for the future.

The governor, who was represented by his Deputy, Mr. Edward Onoja, said it has been a clear demonstration that children are embracing the path to democracy, stressing that this administration recognises they are the leaders of today, not tomorrow.

According to him, in the last six years, his administration has targeted critical thematic areas, especially education.

Bello said his administration would not relent on infrastructural development stressing that the upliftment of health facilities across the state is on course.

He added that his administration has embarked on many reforms to better the lives of children just as the security of lives and properties remains a top priority of his administration.

The governor, however, warned children in the state to stay away from social vices such as examination malpractice, cultism, and drug abuse.

Earlier in her remark, the Kogi State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs. Fatima Kabir Buba, vowed that the present administration would smoke out and make life unbearable for all syndicates involved in the business of kidnapping, sale, abuse and molestation of children.

Buba said the ministry is collaborating with relevant stakeholders to ensure maximum protection of children in the state, adding that anyone caught engaging with this criminal act will face the full wrath of the law.

She emphasised that by ratifying, domesticating and implementing the Child Right Act in Kogi State, the rate of abuse of children on daily basis will be at its minimal level while justice will be served on the offenders of the law.

The Commissioner said: “The law they said is not a respecter of anybody’ no matter how large the horn of a cow is, it is the head of the same cow that must carry it.

“Hence, as a government, we have all it takes to ensure the arrest and prosecution of perpetrators of all forms of child abuse in our society. We shall not abdicate our responsibility in this regard.”