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ENUGU: A worrisome case of child marriage has been uncovered by the UNICEF in the rural community of Umuerum in Ayamelum Local Government Area of Anambra State where aged men of between 70 and 80 years are taking teenage girls of about nine to 12 years as wives.

The shocking discovery was made during a dialogue session with the people of the community as part of the six-day sensitization tour of UNICEF focal communities in Anambra State, which is under the UNICEF A Field Office, Enugu.

Some women from Umuerum had during the dialogue session revealed that they started giving birth to children at ages below 15 after their marriage to their aged husbands at tender ages of between nine and 12.

One of the victims of early marriage, Mrs. Virginia Edochie, narrated how she got married at the age of nine and gave birth to her first baby at the age of 12, lamenting that the marriage was contracted by her parents without her consent. She told the UNICEF team that she had a painful experience during her first pregnancy and subsequent ones because she was not developed mentally and biologically to bear the burden.

She stated that the practice was still prevalent in the area as aged men take young girls of below 15 years as wives with the attendant risks including early pregnancy, denial of education and other health implications. She vowed that none of her children would be victim of early marriage as she has ensured proper education of her children.

A Catholic Catechist in the area, Chief Daniel Amuche, who confessed that he married a girl of nine years, however, condemned the practice, which, he said, has continued unabated in the community. He urged relevant authorities to carry out necessary campaigns that could discourage the practice, stressing that those who engaged in such practice in the past did it out of ignorance.

The visibly disturbed UNICEF officials, however, advised members of the community to put in place necessary measures that could discourage the people from giving out their children for marriage at a tender age, promising that the agency would mount intense campaign against the outdated practice.

The Secretary of the State Social Mobilization and Technical Committee and UNICEF Desk Officer in the State Ministry of Information, Mrs. Obiamaka Nwaofor, asked the community to set up committees that would eradicate the unlawful practice of child marriage, which she said, contravened relevant sections of the Child Rights Act signed into law in the state last year.
According to her, early marriage particularly among girls, poses a lot of problems to their welfare and development, explaining that it causes complication in their reproductive system and inability to acquire formal education. “In the first place, the girl is not matured both physically, mentally and psychological and this will affect her taking proper control and care of the family. Again, biologically, she is not developed and this will also lead to a very serious health problem. Health officers will rightly point out to you that getting pregnant as early as that, she might not be able to deliver the child,” she said.

Speaking at Irefi Oraifite in continuation of the dialogue session, Nwaofor told the people of the community that the sensitization tour organized by the Anambra Social Mobilization and Technical Committee in collaboration with UNICEF A Field Office, Enugu, was aimed at sensitizing members of the focal communities on Environmental Sanitation, Basic and Qualitative Education for Children, and Health issues such as HIV and maternal health.

Said she: “We are set to ensure that every child of school age is in school by the end of this year. We want to make sure that we don’t have children dropping out of school; it is creating a lot of problems. We also want to ensure that the people of this focal community are implementing fully the Child Rights Act, passed into law last year by the state House of Assembly.

“Today, we are here to dialogue on issues we raised last year, to institutionalize the behaviour we are promoting among the people of the communities. Precisely, we want to ensure that the Child Rights Act is respected in the focus communities. The UNICEF has chosen these focal communities for the implementation of its programme and they are working in some schools. We want to ensure that you all have toilets in your premises and in the schools, and to make the schools and the environment child friendly. The communities must be kept clean. That is why the UNICEF is here.

“The governor of Anambra State, Dr Chris Ngige signed an agreement with the UNICEF Chief Field Officer, Mr. George Cook two weeks ago. In that agreement, they agreed to support community development especially to help women and children and to support their survival. UNICEF is supporting government in areas of Integrated Growth and Development of Children (IGDC); Child Rights as it relates to basic education; as it relates to nutrition to ensure that every child has good meal, water, environment and sanitation, to ensure that children and women have good environment to grow.”

She further said that the sensitization tour was aimed at ascertaining the level of response and compliance by the people of the focal communities with the standard, which the agency had recommended in the implementation of its programmes.

UNICEF Adult Education Desk Officer in the State Ministry of Education, Mrs. Ifeoma Onwudiwe, who also addressed the people of the community, condemned the attitude of some parents who she said withdrew their children from school for trading.

She said that the agency was prepared to collaborate with the state government to set up more adult education centers in rural communities of the state to give the people opportunity to educate themselves.

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citation n. 1) a notice to appear in court due to the probable commission of a minor crime such as a traffic violation, failure to keep a dog on a leash, drinking liquor in a park where prohibited, letting a dog loose without a leash, and in some states for possession of a small amount of marijuana. Failure to appear can result in a warrant for the citee's arrest. 2) a notice to appear in court in a civil matter in which the presence of a party appears necessary, usually required by statute, such as a person whose relatives wish to place him/her under a conservatorship (take over and manage his/her affairs). 3) the act of referring to (citing) a statute, precedent-setting case or legal textbook, in a brief (written legal court statement) or argument in court, called "citation of authority." 4) the section of the statute or the name of the case as well as the volume number, the report series and the page number of a case referred to in a brief, points and authorities, or other legal argument. Example: United States v. Wong Kim Ark, (1898) 169 U. S. 649, which is the name of the case, the year when decided, with the decision found at volume 169 of the United States [Supreme Court] Reporter at page 649. A citation also refers to the case itself, as in "counsel's citation of the Wong case is not in point."

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