The Feminist Womanifesto Group has appealed to the leadership of APC to reverse the suspension and expulsion of Mrs Ann Agomeze, the party’s 2023 Ebonyi South senatorial candidate.
The group made the appeal in a statement signed by Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, its Co-Convener on Sunday in Abuja while condemning the development.
Akiyode-Afolabi described Agomeze’s expulsion as unjust, unconstitutional and an intimidation.
“Every Nigerian citizen has the right to elect and be elected into any elective position, it is not the exclusive preserve of a selected few or a particular gender, “she said.
She noted that women and girls in the country had continued to face unprecedented challenges in political participation.
This, she said, was in spite push by women groups, coalitions, and civil society organisations to remove systematic barriers that held women back from equal participation in political leadership.
Akiyode-Afolabi said the event that led to the expulsion of Agomeze confirmed the rising push-back against the hard-won gains for women’s political rights.
She recalled that the APC, Ebonyi chapter, on Monday, Aug. 15, ordered the arrest of Agomeze over alleged anti-party activities and perjury in the state.
This, she said, followed an unsubstantiated accusations by her political rivals and their supporters in the state which indicated widespread gender inequalities.
“The expulsion of Agomeze may portray deliberate exclusion of women from political participation. There is need to respect the National Gender Policy of 35 per cent affirmative action, the INEC Gender Policy, and the APC manifesto on affirmative action.
“The purported suspension and expulsion has disparagingly defamed Agomeze, with the intent to blackmail her into backing out from the senatorial race which is unacceptable, unethical, and unjust,” Akiyode-Afolabi said.
She added that there had been incessant threats to Agomeze’s life.
She explained that the Nigerian Constitution emphasised inclusiveness and autonomy as a way of ensuring that the benefits of national citizenship were shared equally across Nigeria’s complex spectrum of diversity.
Akiyode-Afolabi, therefore, called on APC’s leadership in Ebonyi and its National Chairman and other executive members to take immediate measures to address the situation.
She said this should go beyond reinstating Agomeze to publicly apologising to her in the media and ensuring that her candidacy was secured.
She added that the party’s leadership should also ensure an end to all forms of threat to Agomeze’s life, intimidation and defamation of her character by her political rivals.
“We demand a reverse of the suspension on Agomeze and the Chairman, Mr John Ogboji of Umudomi Ward, in Onicha Local Government Area of Ebonyi from the party,” she stressed.
She noted that women marginally participated in politics and had almost remained invisible in party system because of descrimination, adding that the narrative must change.
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