From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
Imo State Police Commissioner, Aboki Danjuma, has expressed concern over the plight of widows in the State and pledged to partner with relevant organizations to address their challenges.
Danjuma reacting to the plea for collaboration by the Widow AID Foundation (WA) , when they paid him a courtesy visit in his office expressed empathy towards the challenges faced by widows, particularly noting that the police force itself has a significant number of widows.
He welcomed the opportunity to collaborate with the foundation, stating that any partnership aimed at improving the lives of widows would be mutually beneficial and a step in the right direction.
Earlier making the request for a partnership with the police , the Executive Director of the foundation, Faithful Iroh told the commissioner that the visit was part of their scheduled to commemorate the International Widows day which he tagged its theme as “protection of widows rights”.
Iroh who disclosed that already the foundation has gained the support of FIDA in its determination to fight for widow’s rights added that it can not be complete with the assistance of the police.
He said “We often have reports of abuse by relatives ,tenants and different set of people ,we’ve tried on our own to protect them but we realised that we can’t do this alone, in that regard we had to get to FIDA to be part of us in that fight as well as the police, they’re very critical stakeholder in protecting the rights of citizens.
“So we thought it wise to cone and partner with your office to ensure that in protecting these rights we get to the end of it ,so we want to collaborate with your office in terms of service delivery and rapid response because when we have your partnership and call the police there would be immediate response and we sort out issues .
Highlight of the visit was a submission of a document by WA to the commissioner to consolidate the partnership .
Also part of the visit were the State executive of FIDA led by its State chairman, Phil Amaefula, widows and the foundation’s patron ,Kingsley Anyiam .