The Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, has been commended for running a gender friendly administration and always placing issues affecting the well being of women at the fore front.
The commendation came, on Wednesday, in the course of a sensitisation walk against gender based violence held in Abeokuta by the Women Arise for Change Organization.
While commending the governor for personally leading the awareness walk alongside his wife, Dr. Mrs Olufunso Amosun, the President, Women Arise for Change Organization, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, said "Governor Amosun has made Ogun State a pace setter and the rallying point for the campaign against gender based violence in Nigeria."
The awareness walk, which had top government functionaries, members of the civil society, nollywood actors and actresses, took off from the Government House, Isale Igbein and culminated at the June 12 Cultural centre, Kuto, where the Governor was presented with an award for his women-friendly policies.
Governor Amosun who spoke after the awareness walk reiterated his administrations' commitment and determination to resist any act of violence against women in the state.
The Governor explained that Gender based violence should not be taken lightly.
He urged Ogun people to respect and treat women as mothers of the nation, adding that the state government will not tolerate vices against the women folk such as child abuse, wife battery, rape, sexual harassment and deliberate denial of women's rights among others.
In her remarks, the Ogun State First Lady, appealed to women to speak out and report perpetrators of gender based violence to appropriate authorities as this will go a long way in reducing maternal mortality in the country.
She maintained that violence against women is a violation of human rights, adding that drastic measures must be taken to stop gender based violence in order to enable women participate actively in nation building.
"It is essential for us to take action now to stop wife battery, rape, sexual harassment, abduction, and other forms of abuses against women. We must all rise up and take this message to our homes and communities in order to safeguard the future of our women," Mrs Amosun said.
She commended the initiative of Comrade Okei-Odumakin in fighting for the rights of women, calling for more concerted efforts by other stakeholders as a way of reducing gender based violence in the state and the nation at large.
Responding, Comrade Okei-Odumakin said at least one out of every three women around the world had been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused once in her lifetime, saying this must stop in order to protect women and girls in the society.