October 06, (THEWILL) — A Civil society organisation identified as Tomorrow is a Girl Initiative in Ebonyi state has uncovered ten new cases of female genital mutilation in the state.
The Executive Director of the body, Lucy Uzodimma-Ogodo, made this known in Abakaliki, Ebonyi state capital.
According to her, irrespective of public awareness, the organisation spotted and apprehended perpetrators of ten different cases of FGM within September 2025 at the Ndeguokpitumo community axis of the Abakaliki local government area of the State.
According to her, there was still a need for intensified sensitisation campaigns to the people in the hinterlands in the local dialects to eradicate female genital mutilation from the entire state.
She regretted that there was always a high FGM prevalence rate in the rural areas of the state between August and October annually because most people still believe in the efficacy of the practice to end promiscuity among females.
“Tomorrow is a Girl Initiative joined the campaign to end FGM in 2020 in partnership with the National Orientation Agency, AMURT, UNICEF, etc.
“We brought out our initiative on how we can end FGM. Some years ago, when we went to Ohaukwu LGA, the women threw stones at us. After some years, the awareness became wider and the level of acceptance increased.
“The issue we noticed is that there was this outbreak of public declarations against FGM by communities. Every Community was making public declarations so that they would be in the good books of the state governor and the wife.
“Despite the public declarations, we noticed that in the rural communities, the practice of FGM still persists. Then I began to ask, did we do our due diligence before public declarations, or did the public come first and then shield us from meeting the people who actually need the sensitisation?
“Because the traditional ruler is one person, whereas the natives are different individuals, often uneducated to know the medical dangers of FGM without sensitisation. Hence, the reason we did and are still doing a holistic campaign with adolescent girls, women groups, patent medicine dealers association, and traditional birth attendants in 60 communities across four different LGAs in the state.
“We even have people going house to house, which is the reason we have gotten this current report of ten cases of female genital mutilation in Abakaliki LGA within just one month.
“We noticed the FGM rate is always highly prevalent in the months of August, September, and October annually, when the rural dwellers are done with farm work and the weather seems very cool to support fast healing.
“By this time last year, we got a report of a register where girls had written their names and booked dates they wanted to be mutilated in the Amachi community in the same Abakaliki LGA of the state. So we intervened and stopped it.
“This year, we are uncovering all these because, in collaboration with our partner AMURT, surveillance people were positioned in different communities unknown to the natives. They could not deny or run away because there are phones now, someone made a video of them in the act and while running away with blood stains on their wrappers.
“Within one month, we recorded ten cases of FGM in Abakaliki LGA; the same happens in other LGAs of the state. I call on the government, all partners, stakeholders, CSOs, and churches for increased sensitisation campaigns to the rural dwellers in the native dialects to eradicate FGM in the entire state.”
On his part, the Chief Programs Officer of the National Orientation Agency, Ebonyi State directorate, Mr Uchenna Unah, pledged continuous sensitisation far into the hinterlands to end the ugly trend.
“Three weeks ago, we got a report from one of our trained surveillance members, specifically trained by AMURT on end FGM, that some children were mutilated in the Ndeguokpitumo community of Abakaliki local government area of Ebonyi State”, he said.
Sunday Ogbu is a professional journalist with eight - twelve years experience that had worked with various print and online media. Sunday specializes in news reporting with the aim of educating his readers on current social, political and economic occurences within his area of coverage. Sunday is a strong force to work with in the media industry and uses his positive attitude and tireless energy to encourage others to work hard and succeed. Sunday is inspired daily by his wife and their four children. In his free time, Sunday likes sight-seeing, reading and discussing issues of societal interest.
