By Haruna Salami
Miss Idoma Ambassador, Queen Esther Ene Daniels has perfected arrangements to empower 100 young ladies drawn from the 9 local government areas of Benue South Senatorial district as a follow up to her campaign against rape.
The beauty Queen had, in April this year, launched an online campaign tagged ‘Give Her Pen, Not Penis’, apparently suggesting that the male folks should rather invest in the education of the girl child and not to rape her.
Since the federal government announced a national lockdown in March this year, there have been alarming cases of rape across Benue, with the highest record of 8 victims within one week in May 2020.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja on Friday, Miss Daniels said “I could not stand it that, 8 innocent young girls would fall victims of rape in just one week in Idoma land.
“That informed my outing on the 15th June 2020, when I led over 200 young ladies to join other civil society groups in protest to the Och’Idoma palace, the Otukpo Area Command and other authorities.
“This time, I have packaged a skill acquisition programme that will last one week for 100 girls in Benue South, to be trained on various vocational skills, so as to be self reliant and well equipped economically against rape”, Daniels said.
She added that the programme would hold in Otukpa, Ogbadibo local government area of Benue State from Monday, 7th to Saturday 12th September, 2020.
Miss Daniels listed the skills to be acquired to include, shoes making, handbags, sanitiser, liquid soup, odour control, foot mats, throw pillows, cake baking, decoration and makeup, while another group shall be trained on snails/grasscutter farming and poultry and another group on how to design webs, apps and programing.
She said a certain amount shall be set aside as a takeoff capital for each participant while she monitors and mentors them for 2 months to ensure they are well established.
When asked how the fund would be raised, the Beauty Queen said her family members, friends and some non-governmental organizations were going to assist her, since her letters to government agencies and some political leaders did not yield any results.
She, however, named the Director-General of National Directorate of Employment, Dr. Ladan Mohammed Argungu as Chairman of the graduation ceremony which shall hold on Saturday, 12th September, 2020 in Benue State.
Daniels also named Senator Abba Moro (Benue South) as Father of the day; Wife of Benue Governor, Dr. (Mrs) Eunice Ortom and wife of former Senate President, Chief Mrs Helen Mark as Mothers of the Day; while Senator Gabriel Suswam (Benue North East) is the Distinguished guest of honour.
She also added that the Director-General of National Research Institute for Chemical Technology, Zaria, Prof. Jeffrey Barminas, has assured that a team of international experts shall be in Benue to train the participants on various products of relevance.
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