The wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari and wives of Governors have appealed to women and other relevant stakeholders to push for an end to the spate of kidnapping and banditry across the country.
Mrs Buhari made appeal through the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Administration, Dr Hajo Sani, shortly after the wife of the President met with the governors’ wives and some security experts behind closed-door at the State House, Abuja on Wednesday.
Sani said Mrs Buhari was concerned about the security situation in the country.
“Her Excellency decided to call this meeting for the women to brainstorm, proffer solutions and mobilise resources and relief materials to the troubled areas,” she said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting was aimed at engaging women at all levels to proffer solutions to peace building and end the rising cases of kidnapping and armed bandits in Nigeria.
NAN also reports that they deliberated on how women can contribute to tackling social vices among women and youth especially with regards to cultism, armed robbery, kidnapping and cyber crime.
She expressed concern over security situation in some states of Nigeria especially the rising humanitarian crisis among women and children in most of the internally displaced persons’ camps in Zamfara.
Mrs Nkechi Okorocha, wife of Imo State Governor told State House Correspondents after the meeting that Mrs Buhari is passionate about the security of lives and property of the citizens.
“Wife of the President called security experts to talk to us as governors wive on what we can do to compliment the efforts of our security agencies and governors in our respective states, and how we can contribute to cushion the effect of the security challenges in our states,” she said.
On her part, The President of National Council for Women Society (NCWS), Mrs Laraba Shoda, said women’s contributions are key to solving many security challenges in Nigeria.
Shoda stressed the need to engage women in the advocacy against spread of insecurity in the country.
“You know that women are the owners of the homes, they know everybody from the family level and so, if we carry women along this security challenges at least a lot will be done to sensitise our children, our husbands and friends outside the homes and sensitise their friends on the dangers of this criminality.
“So, we are happy that wife of the President shows her serious concern over this security challenge because during the meeting we discuss the modalities on how women can be involved in this to help tackle this challenge,” she said.
