- By Ragan M. Conteh
Police in Maforki Chiefdom, Port Loko District have arrested one ‘Sowei’ and a lactating mother for initiating two Junior Secondary School III girls into the secret female ‘Bondo’ Society or Female Genital Mutilation.
The cases of the two are awaiting advice at the Law Officers’ Department.
The two girls were supposed to take this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
It could be recalled that President Ernest Bai Koroma during the Ebola outbreak banned the activities of all secret societies in the country.
The Deputy Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs, Madam Rugiatu Neneh Turay confirmed the arrest of the two female suspects enlightening that during the Ebola outbreak, Government suspended the activities of all secret societies and that she travelled to Port Loko to get first-hand information about the issue.
Prior to her appointment, Madam Rugiatu Neneh Turay campaigned against Female Genital Mutilation in the country and recently warned people to desist from secret society activities harmful to young girls as well as desist from subjected children to hard labour.
She also pledged her Ministry’s commitment to end FGM and acts of violence against women and children in the country.
- New Citizen, 15 June 2016
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