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From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
A child and gender rights advocacy group – Men Against Rape Foundation (MARF), has described as traumatic and against global practice, the parading of Peter Nwachukwu, the embattled husband of late gospel singer, Osinachi Nwachukwu, before his children and wife’s relatives.
The spokesman of the Ministry of Women Affairs, Olujimi Oyetomi, had in a statement said, Nwachukwu was paraded during a visit of the Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, to the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, on April 20, 2022.
In a statement issued by its Executive Director, Lemmy Ughegbe, the group while condemning the act, noted that parading their father before them especially after the trauma of losing their mother to years of abuse by same man, will only do them more harm than group.
The group, called on Minister of Women Affairs, to instead focus on the management of late gospel singer’s three children for trauma rather than expose them to more traumatizing events.
Ughegbe, wondered why Tallen was more interested in posing for the camera than the state of the mental health of Osinachi’s children.
He said despite MARF’s unalloyed stand that the late singer’s husband be made to face the full wrath of the law, global best practices and even common sense forbid that the children be exposed to a parade of their father for it further traumatizes them.
According to him, their father can be paraded even on the street for all he cares, but the children who are minors ought not be exposed to it in line with global best practices.
Ughegbe said the Minister was too well traveled and exposed to feign ignorance of the psychosocial consequences of continually exposing the children to traumatizing experiences such a parading their father before them especially after the trauma of losing their mother to years of abuse by same man.
“Priority should be genuine care for the mental health of the children not political mileage for the minister through publicity stunts. Even if she wants publicity, she can leave the children out. They deserve to be protected from further trauma.
Part of the statement reads: “Minister Pauline Tallen seems more focused on publicity stunts and clout chasing in the Osinachi Nwachukwu case than protecting the mental health of the late music maestro’s children.
“Despite how traumatized the kids are, Tallen and all those around her rather than get the children completely away from the radar of the public and away from all of these further traumatizing activities, they soak them in, apparently, for the optics.
“For a minister who is well traveled and exposed, she can’t feign ignorance of the effect of parading their father before them. It is lack of care for the kids that she has demonstrated.
“As a Child and Gender Rights Advocate, I condemn the continuing traumatization of those kids and urge Madam Minister to make the welfare and psychosocial need of the children a priority even as we call for a thorough investigation into the allegations of Domestic Violence brought against Osinachi’s husband, Peter Nwachukwu. That is what justice will mean for Osinachi if we could here her speak to us
“It is therefore incumbent on Madam Minister and relevant agencies to excuse the children from the scene and provide the needed psychosocial support for them which is mandated by the provisions of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act (VAPP) 2015.”
