Circumcise your daughter, go to jail, Osun govt warns
By HAMMED BODUNRIN, osogbo
Friday, May 19, 2006

Osun State government has reiterated its determination to either fine anybody found guilty of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) offences sum of N50,000 or to make the person face a two years imprisonment.

This, the government said, would deter people who rely on old tradition to perpetrate this act in the state.
To buttress its seriousness, copies of the state House of Assembly Act to that effect were distributed to stakeholders, medical workers, community and religious leaders invited to an awareness rally/workshop on abolition of FGM held in Osogbo yesterday.

Speaking at the workshop, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Women Affairs, Mrs Bukola Opakunle said the law banning FGM was assented to by the State Governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, to ensure good health and secured future for the girl-child in the state.
Mrs Opakunle, who was represented by the Director of Information in the ministry, Mrs Moji Fakokuade, stressed the need to stop the harmful practice in the interest of good health.

In her welcome address, the State Programme Adviser for the United Nations Population Fund Agency (UNFPA), Mrs Stella Akinso, warned of dangerous consequences of the practice.
According to her, apart from the health hazard ranging from excessive bleeding to tetanus infections, among others, the psychological effect of FGM on the victim is enormous.

Akinso who insisted that the practice must be totally eradicated said both the practitioners, their advisers and every one involved in the harmful act would be prosecuted according to the law.
She explained that complications arising from circumcision would not be tolerated as those caught would be brought to book.