Home Blog Page 61

Challenges Facing DELSU @ 30: every university is a work in progress – Egwunyenga

By
News View
-

By ABEL JOHNGOLD ORHERUATA

Prof. Andy Ogochukwu Egwunyenga, the Vice Chancellor (VC) of Delta State University (DELSU), Abraka, today, at the school 30th Anniversary and convocation ceremony, says that he made a point earlier that every university was a work in progress and that DELSU was no exception.

In his Convocation ceremony speech, the VC noted that, DELSU has its challenges which every university has had to contend with, but he was convinced that they were surmountable. Noting that the school facilities: classrooms, laboratories, workshops, halls of residence and offices need expansion and upgrading.

Prof. Andy Ogochukwu Egwunyenga, VC, DELSU, Abraka

Egwunyenga disclosed that despite government’s commendable efforts, there was need to engage more academic staff and there was a compelling need for power and energy infrastructures to enable DELSU maximize the infinite opportunities inherent in ICT.

 

According to the VC “the foregoing challenges are tied to funding. I must admit that the Delta State Government has acquitted itself in funding the University in view of the multiple responsibilities it owes different strata and sectors of development in the State. However, a university is a cost intensive project that is perpetually playing Oliver Twist in order to realize its great aspirations and those of the society. The University is the incubator for national development and as such it demands a lot of funding to cope and deliver on its many mandates”.

While commending Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s magnanimity in developing DELSU and same time appealing for increase in funding, Egwunyenga said “It is based on the foregoing that I appeal to the State Government for increase in funding. The Government of His Excellency, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa, has been magnanimous in funding our university and this has reflected in the overwhelming number of academic programmes fully accredited by the National Universities Commission (NUC).

“However, since our university is evolving, we crave the indulgence of our Visitor for increase in funding. This will certainly leapfrog the development of our university”.

He said that there were ongoing projects that still require the attention of the State Government which includes the Administration Building, the abandoned Sports Complex and the Faculty of Science Complex that are waiting for attention and completion. It has also become expedient for the University to have an international conference centre in view of its coming of age.

 

Egwunyenga added that DELSU was in dire need of more accommodation for students and staff. The movement of the Faculties of Agriculture and Management Sciences to Abraka necessitates the construction of new halls of residence for students and blocks of flats for staff. This will go a long way in repositioning our university in achieving its vision and mission.

DELSU Offers Academic Certificates To 12,920 graduands

By
News View
-
By ABEL JOHNGOLD ORHERUATA
The Delta State University (DELSU), Abraka, today, offered academic certificates, diplomas and degrees to a total number of twelve thousand, nine hundred and twenty graduands.
The DELSU Vice Chancellor, Prof. Andy Egwunyenga disclosed this numbers in his speech at the Convocation ceremony.
He said the summary of Postgraduate Degrees, First Degrees and Diploma for the 2018/2019 Session was 4465. That of 2019/2020 Session was 4998, while that of 2020/2021 Session was 3457. Making a grand total for the three sessions12920.
Egwunyenga said the university has consistently kept faith with its mandate of producing quality graduates who will contribute to nation building and advance the cause of humanity globally. That the quantity and quality of graduates produced by the university over the years attest to the capacity to live up to the vision of DELSU founding fathers.
 He congratulated all staff and students, on the successes they have recorded in approximating the ideals upon which the university was founded.
While reminding all that it is not yet Eldorado for DELSU, Egwunyenga noted that every university, even the most advanced, is a work in progress and the Delta State University, Abraka, is no exception.
“We have achieved giant strides, but there is still a lot of work to be done. In view of this reality, I invite all lovers of education to join hands with us in building a true citadel of learning known for groundbreaking research, unparalleled dissemination and deployment of knowledge for nation building and for the advancement of humanity”. DELSU VC added in his Convocation ceremony speech.

GOVERNORSHIP SCREENING: Delta PDP faces danger as Okowa mounts pressure for Oborevwori

By
News View
-
Delta PDP

By Umukoro Oghenekaro

The fallout from the South South PDP Governorship Screening held in Port Harcourt on Thursday has raised a red flag on the possibility of the PDP offering the Delta State Governorship to the opposition All Progressives Alliance on a platter of gold with Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s insistence on Sheriff Oborevwori as his preferred candidate.

It emerged that at the panel that Oborevwori was confronted with series of serious petitions against him, one of which was discrepancies in his names and certificates.

According to the facts in a petition submitted by some concerned members of Delta PDP, while Oborevwori’s First School Leaving Certificate bears Oborevwori Francis, his WAEC Certificate bears Oborevwori O. Francis, his BSC Certificate bears Oborevwori Sheriff Francis, his NYSC Certificate bears Oborevwori Sheriff while his MSC Certificate bears Oborevwori Sheriff Francis Orohwedor.

The petition also showed that he swore to an affidavit in 2003 that his name is Oborevwori Orohwedor Francis while an age declaration deposed to on his behalf by one Benson Ogolo who claimed to be his cousin, gave his name as Francis Oborguwori.

The petitioners pointed out that the series of name changes are similar in fact with the case of Degi Eremienyo, David Lyon’s running mate in the Bayelsa State Governorship election, which led the Supreme Court to upturn the APC victory in favour of Governor Duoye Diri of the PDP.

Confronted with these and other discrepancies in his documents Oborevwori was said to have be visibly shaken and unable to put up any reasonable explanations to defend his multiple names.

Members of the panel were also said to have been shocked at his incoherent statements and incorrect use of language, especially for a Governorship aspirant.

While they viewed the discrepancies as weighty and pointed at the danger of exposing the Delta PDP to the Bayelsa-like situation, Governor Okowa is alleged to have mounted heavy pressure on the Chairman of the Committee, HE Duoye Diri, and may have compromised him as a fellow Governor to sweep the petition under the carpet.

However, various other members of the panel expressed deep worries and have sworn to take their views to the National Working Committee of the PDP should the observations and report of the panel on these issues be doctored in any way.

They insisted that Governor Diri who is very conversant with the nature of the case, the decided Supreme Court position on such matters and for which he was a beneficiary is clearly working against the interest of the PDP for compromising on such serious inconsistencies.

It is more so as it has been discovered that the Legal Committee of the APC has already investigated and noted same discrepancies and are already prepared to challenge the eligibility of Oborevwori in court before and after the general elections should he emerge as the candidate of Delta PDP.

The APC interim report on Delta PDP frontline Governorship aspirants said: “We have discovered discrepancies in the certificates submitted with his form CF001 to the Independent National Electoral Commission in 2018 and those submitted with the PDP Party Brief Form in 2022. The above discrepancies in the name of the candidate makes his case exactly the same with that of Degi Eremienyo which led to the disqualification of David Lyon by the Supreme Court.”

The report also highlighted discrepancies in Oborevwori’s age declarations, pointing out that whereas his WAEC Certificate obtained in 1999 put his date of birth as 12th November, 1979, he swore to an affidavit in 2003 stating he was born in 1963.

“This connotes that he supposedly wrote his WAEC examination at the of 36 in 1999.”

Also casting doubts about the authenticity of Oborevwori’s certificate, the report pointed out that whereas his WAEC Certificate indicated that he finished from Oghareki Grammar School in 1999, investigations revealed that the school was founded in 2014 and that prior to 2014, the school was named Baptist Mission School, Oghareki, before the State Government returned it to the mission in 2011.”

Both the petition to the PDP screening committee and the APC interim report showed also that there were glitches of ineligible dates in a number of the documents tendered by Oborevwori.

It is suspected that it was towards providing a cover for Oborevwori that Okowa smuggled Chief Mrs Okwuofu, a known campaigner for Oborevwori, into the Screening Committee but the party later discovered and substituted her.

However, Okowa is putting pressure on Diri to carve a way out for Oborevwori and the Bayelsa Governor, with the benefit of hindsight from his case against Lyon and with his position as the chairman of the screening committee, is already offering help.

Diri and Okowa are said to have engaged throughout Thursday night to map a way out and, over night on Friday morning with the use of instruments of government, Oborevwori has mysteriously produced another document to harmonise his many different different names.

The question however is if it would be right for the screening committee to accept the new document after he had filled and submitted his form and appeared before the panel only to be allowed to repackage documents in afterthought. It is also being asked if it would be fair to other aspirants for the PDP to allow Governor Diri and Okowa to glaringly manipulate the process, especially when the facts are already public.

Since these issues came to the fore, top Delta and national PDP stakeholders have been expressing worries that Okowa and Diri might just be putting Delta PDP on cliff hanger should Okowa be allowed to have his way on Oborevwori into the 2023 elections.

“After receiving our support to emerge as Governor and after enjoying his tenure, Okowa wants to put our party in jeopardy. He has eaten belly full but he wants to keep a stooge to enable him keep eating otherwise he will destroy the pot, the plate and the table with which he was served, but God will not allow him,” one of the chieftains who pleaded anonymity said.

The APC Legal Committee who also investigated other Delta Governorship aspirants reported that while they found Olorogun David Edevbie has no issues, they are yet to conclude investigations on Barrister Kingsley Otuaro, Senator James Manager and Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi.

However, at the PDP Governorship screening, Otuaro was said to have stated in his CF001 form that he had a maiden name, a statement which left the committee wondering if he was once a married woman or a transgender.

OMO-AGEGE DID NOT INSTRUCT ANYONE TO INVESTIGATE ANY GOVERNORSHIP ASPIRANT; LEAVE HIM OUT OF PDP’S INFIGHTING

By
News View
-

The attention of the Office of the Deputy President of the Senate, His Excellency, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, has been drawn to a document in circulation on social media with the heading: “RE: INTERIM REPORT ON INVESTIGATION INTO THE PERSONALITY AND LEGAL ELIGIBILITY STATUS OF FRONTLINE CONTESTANTS OF THE PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY FOR DELTA STATE GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION”. We hereby respond as follows:

1. That Senator Omo-Agege did not instruct anyone to investigate anybody in the PDP or any other political party who may be interested in the 2023 Governorship Election in Delta State. The so-called report is therefore predicated on a wholly childish and extremely devilish diversionary scheme designed to use the DSP’s good name to give unmerited advantage to one side in the now open ‘do or die’ fight within the Delta State PDP. This is a clear case of the ‘hand of Esau, but the voice of Jacob’. It will not work.

2. We note that the mischievous, desperate, and fraudulent authors of the document could not summon the courage to include their names on it. They simply inscribed what appears to be a signature on it under the bogus caption of a non-existent “Legal Committee on Gubernatorial Election”, without more. This is just so puerile and cowardly.

3. Further, whereas official written communications to the DSP’s Office are typically duly recorded in an official register and their acknowledgment copies duly stamped and signed by the staff of the Special Adviser (Admin) to the DSP, this is not the case with the so-called report designed to forcefully use the DSP’s positive image to give undue advantage to one side in the well-known present bitter struggle for supremacy in the Delta State PDP gubernatorial primaries.

4. It is also observed that the lily-livered authors of the document in circulation addressed the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State as “Chief Omeni Sobotie”. Everyone who works closely with the DSP knows that the Delta State APC Chairman prefers to be addressed as ‘Elder’ or ‘Engr’, not ‘Chief’. This is another pointer to the fakeness of the desperate authors and their sponsor(s).

5. In view of the foregoing, may we advise all desperate elements in the Delta State PDP to simply ‘calm down’. They should completely leave Senator Omo-Agege out of their internal affairs. The DSP is not one who runs away from good fights, but he has no dog in their fights. We are fully ready for the PDP in Delta, but this is neither the time nor our strategy. When we start, our faces will not be hidden because cowardice is alien to the DNA of our political operations.

6. As usual, the DSP, His Excellency, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege is calmly attending to serious matters of public governance in the Senate. His primary interest remains how best he can collaborate with other national leaders and patriots to bring more benefits of good governance to our people now and in the future, as God permits. For this, he is also diligently organizing our leaders and people on how to ‘BUILD A NEW DELTA’ on the great promises of his popular ‘EDGE Agenda’. We refuse to accept calculated distractions from people who are on a desperate journey to nowhere.

SIGNED:
Aruviere Martin Egharhevwa, Esq
Executive Assistant to the Deputy President of the Senate.

2023 : Osinbajo expresses desire to ensure Nigeria occupies pride of place, if elected President

By
News View
-

By Onos Agbamu

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has expressed his avowed desire to serve Nigeria selflessly and ensure that the country takes her pride of place in the comity of nations if elected as Nigeria’s president come 2023.

Osinbajo who is a presidential aspirant on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC), said he has the requisite experience, having served as vice president in the past seven years, to salvage the country.

The vice president spoke at the palace of the Asagba of Asaba, Obi (Prof.) Chike Edozien, during a courtesy visit on the monarch.

He told the royal father that he was in the palace, to formally inform the Asagba, of his intention to contest for the highest office in the country.

Osinbajo explained that he took the decision to enter into the contest with all “sense of responsibility having served as vice president and occasionally as acting president in the past seven years”.

According to him, the position of Vice President has exposed him to every part of the country and their peculiar challenges, noting that he was offering himself for genuine service to the nation.

Receiving the august visitor, the Asagba of Asaba, Obi (Prof)Chike Edozien, reminded the nation’s Vice President of the need for the Federal Government to establish a federal university in Asaba, as part of measures to pacify ‘ndi Ahaba’ (Asaba people), following the massacre of it’s natives during the civil war, by federal troops.

Prof. Edozien informed the presidential hopeful that Asaba and indeed Delta State, was not insulated from the present challenges of insecurity, perverse poverty, epileptic power supply, poor economy, even as the monarch further urged him to address the issues, if elected.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who was in Asaba to meet with statutory delegates of Delta State APC for the presidential primaries, was received on arrival at the Asaba International Airport, by the Secretary to State Government, Mr. Patrick Ukah, before proceeding to the palace.

Delsu@30: Prof. Patrick Lumumba assure Africans of Bright Future Ahead

By
News View
-

By Ovedhe Hezekiah.

 

Erudite Scholar, Prof. Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba, has assured Africans of a bright future ahead in the African continent, urging Africans not to be retard in their quest of acquiring education.

 

 

Prof. Patrick Lumumba gave the assurance on Friday April 29th, 2022, while delivering the 30th anniversary commemorative lecture, titled: “Whither Education in Africa “, of the Delta State University Abraka, held at the 1000 seating capacity lecture hall of the University.

 

According to Prof. Loch Otieno  Lumumba: “Talking about Education in Africa, one must go down in his history back to when Africa was not invaded by men of the outside world. They used their education to divide us Africans making us as tools in their hands. Because of Education,  we Africans misunderstand God.

 

“But if we continue to worry about Africa. We will continue to make mistakes of giving up. We must remember the efforts of our past heroes of Nigeria who fought for the independence of Nigeria to liberate us from the slave of the colonial masters. And change the continent of Africa through Education and we should not forget the sacrifices and voices of our past heroes who used their education to fight for the independence of some countries in Africa.

 

“Africa,  we should learn to consume what we cultivate than depending on consuming importation foods. It’s right time we Africans rely on Africa talents to solve some of the problems we have here in Africa.”

 

On the 30th anniversary of DELSU, Prof.  Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba said that, “Delta State University Abraka, has made enormous contributions to the development of Abraka, Delta than Nigeria and Africa.

 

 

“As Africans,  we should put off low esteem and be proud of the things that we do in Africa. We should be proud of the talents we have produced in Delta State University Abraka and use them in solving some of our problems in Abraka, Delta State, and Nigeria at large.

 

 

“As we celebrate Delta State University Abraka 30years of existence and some of the notable achievements of the University over the past years. Its time we re-energize and put on more efforts to contribute your quota to the development of Africa.”

 

 

In his response,  the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Andy Ogochukwu Egwunyenga commended Prof. Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba for honouring the University invitation to deliver the lecture.

Crisis Loom Over Warri South Constituency 11 Assembly Seat

By
News View
-
Delta State

A vibrant community leader in Okere Urhobo Warri, Mr. Igho Egheba Okumagba has said that Warri South Constituency 11 created by INEC which comprises of Okere Urhobo Kingdom and Agbarha Warri Kingdom in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State belongs to the Urhobos of Warri.

Okumagba who spoke to newsmen in Warri said it become very important for an indigene of the constituency to contest for the Delta State House of Assembly seat and not indigene of a neighbouring tribe, stressing that the current Chairman of Warri South Local Government Area, Dr. Michael Tidi declaring his interest to contest election under Constituency 11 for the 2023 Delta State House of Assembly (DTHA) remains unacceptable to the indigenous Urhobos of Warri.

He noted that Tidi’s declaring to contest for DTHA under Constituency 11 is a call for anarchy and crisis in Warri and environs.

According to him “Tidi’s declaration to contest under Constituency 2 remains condemnable and unacceptable to the people of Okere Urhobo Kingdom and Agbarha Warri Kingdom. It should be made clear to the general public that Urhobos of Warri was at loggerhead with the Itsekiris over the ownership of Warri metropolis until the Supreme Court judgment that put an end to the controversy in favour of the Urhobos”.

Okumagba who is also one of the leaders of South -South Zone said that the action of Dr. Michael Tidi is capable of igniting crisis in Warri metropolis as such the Itsekiri nation should call their son to order, urging them to stop him from nurturing the ambition to contest in Urhobo territory now and in future.

He also called on the Delta State Governor, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, the Delta State Commissioner of Police and other security agencies to call Dr. Tidi to order to avoid imminent crisis that may erupt from his ambition to contest under Warri Constituency 11 of DTHA

Okowa should be given right of first refusal to produce successor – DLM

By
News View
-

By News View

Deltans Lives Matter (DLM) have advocated that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State be given right of first refusal to produce not just the flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but his successful.

The leader of the group, Mr. Christian Abeh, who noted this in a Press Statement he co-signed with his Deputy and Secretary Bartholomew Utele, and distributed to journalists at a Press Conference held at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Press Center, Asaba, today, said provided, the person would not just complete ongoing projects but also initiate good projects and policies that would better the living standard of the people.

 

 

Abeh, who said Governor Okowa should provide his successors, asked “If James Ibori can produce two successors (Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan and Dr Ifeanyi Okowa) what was wrong with Okowa not producing his successor or flag bearer of his party?

 

 

“Ibori was given that right in 2006, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan had it until he decided to let Ibori snatch it from him in 2014”. He added.

 

 

According to the Deltans Lives Matter global coordinator “it has been a tradition that a sitting governor who after his terms in office be allowed to produce his successor, provided the candidate is popular. We don’t understand the gang up and sponsored media attacks by some unpopular aspirants against the governor.

 

 

“Meanwhile, we remember that the governor have asked his Delta North people no to contest the governorship. This was something Ibori and Uduaghan could not ask their people to do against other zones. We expected Chief Ibori to apologize to the state for atrocities committed against our treasury that boasting of giving us David Edevbie as Okowa’s successor”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Smile Re-Ignites The Market With Revamped Data Plans

By
News View
-

The internet broadband market in the country is once again set to explode as the leading Broadband Servie Provider, Smile Nigeria, has revamped some of its data plans, thereby giving its numerous customers more value for their money.

The revamped data plans, noted Abdul Hafeez, Chief Marketing Officer, Smile Nigeria, are amazing as they benefit both the low end users and heavy users.

Included in the data plans are most of the Bigga plans and the Unlimted plans. An apparent icing on the cake is the introduction of a new Jumbo plan.
Hafeez, enthused that Smile will stop at nothing in always availing its customers the best data plans in the market.

He explained that the quartet in the Bigga plans series have been padded with more data while their prices remain the same with the same 30 days validity. These are the 8GB Bigga now 10GB Bigga, 12GB Bigga now 15GB Bigga, 15GB Bigga now 20GB Bigga and 20GB Bigga now 25GB Bigga.

For the old 8GB Bigga at N3,000, the customer will get 10GB Bigga thus getting an additional 2GB of data. The former 12GB Bigga is now 15GB Bigga, a 3GB more data at the same N4,000. The then 15GB Bigga now comes with additional 5GB to peak at 20GB Bigga for the same old price of N5,000.

Any new purchase of the old 20GB Bigga will ensure for the buyer an additional 5GB of data, being 25GB Bigga at the same old price of N6,000.

Hafeez further disclosed that the Unlimited plans have had their FUPs significantly increased with a very small increase to the cost while still retainig the 30 days validity period. The plans affected under this category are the UnlimitedLite and the UnlimitedEssential.

For the UnlimitedLite plan, the customer will now enjoy 40GB of data at N12,000 as against the previous 35GB data at N10,000. Which means that at an additional cost of N2,000 a corresponding 5GB data is at the customers’s disposal.

The new UnlimitedEssential plan now goes for N18,000 with a 100GB data bundle as against the 70GB. This offers the customer an additional 30GB of data at an additional cost of just N3,000.

To cap it all, a new plan has been introduced in the Jumbo family. The latest addition is the 400GB Jumbo which is very cost effective at only N50,000 valid for 6 months. Market watchers believe that this newest Jumbo family plan comes with a lot of value for the customer.

An innovative company, Smile, launched the first 4G LTE network in West Africa in Nigeria in 2014 revolutionising the way Nigerians access the internet. The company was the first to launch VoLTE on its network and has continued with its innovation, having introduced SmileVoice, which is a free mobile app that enables customers with any Android or Apple iPhone device (including those which are not VoLTE-enabled) to make SuperClear voice calls over Smile’s 4G LTE network.

It was also the first to introduce an unlimited offering, which enables SuperFast data and SuperClear voice, all on one bundle.

“I had my rapist’s baby at age nine, married him at 11 and had six kids by 16

By
News View
-

Sherry was just nine-years-old when she was raped by a man she should have been able to trust – the deacon of her local church.

He was 18 and targeted Sherry when she was still a young child. Her mother and sisters were out at church and the youngster was home alone.

Sherry’s attacker let himself into her home, the one place she should have felt safe, and sexually abused her.

It was a harrowing experience for the nine-year-old and one she will never forget.

Sherry explained: “All you had to do was walk down the steps from the church and you’d walk into our kitchen.

“And that’s where he raped me. I woke up with him on top of me. Many times.”

Terrified, but certain something very wrong had happened to her, Sherry confided in her mother and begged her to help her understand what she’d been through.

Her mum’s reaction was not what she expected – she refused to believe her young daughter and even went as far as telling the whole church congregation that Sherry was a liar.

Sherry said: “I didn’t understand what really took place. I did tell my mother. I had no idea what words to really use.

“The only thing that came to mind is, I remember, I said, ‘Mom, the deacon messed with me’.

“She said, ‘no he did not. He don’t do that kind of stuff’. I said, ‘Mom, he did’.

“And she told me, ‘that’s not true’. My mom, for some reason, she seemed to blame me for what happened.

“She told other people that I was fast. She would get up in that church and tell all the members ‘don’t believe my daughter’. I was a sacrifice to cover up what he did.”

Heartbroken, Sherry had nowhere else to turn and contemplated running away from home – but at just nine, she had nowhere else to go.

But then, still aged just nine and after months of abuse, Sherry found out she was pregnant.

Being so young, she had no idea what was happening to her body but her mother was by her side when the doctor told her she was expecting a baby.

Social workers were by now involved but when they asked a frightened Sherry who the father was, her mother told her she was making the family look bad and the nine-year-old kept her terrible secret.

Instead, she was sent away with the bishop. On their way from Tampa to Miami, he pulled over and raped her while she was seven months pregnant.

Sherry gave birth in a hospital while staying with the bishop, thousands of miles from home, and her mother didn’t even visit her young daughter or new baby granddaughter.

Social services or the police weren’t called and two years later Sherry was forced to marry the man who had been sexually abusing and raping her since she was a child.

They said their vows in the church she had attended all her life.

Sherry’s last glimmer of hope was snuffed out when a judge refused to issue a marriage licence, so her mother drove to a neighbouring country to get one.

Sherry said: “The state of Florida failed me. The school knew. The hospital knew. The doctors knew.

“The courts knew. Nobody protected me – not one person. Not one.”

Chillingly, her mother made the wedding cake, dress and even a veil for her 11-year-old daughter’s marriage to a 20-year-old man.

It was then that Sherry realised no one was coming to save her.

Every year after her wedding, Sherry gave birth to another baby and by the time she was 16, she was a mother of six.

The deacon vanished and was even sent to prison for not paying child support but when she tried to launch divorce proceedings, she was unable to because she was under 18.

Finally, Sherry found a solicitor who would take on her case and she was finally free of the deacon – but also a teenage mother of six.

She has now gone on to have three more children and has always been honest with her kids about what happened to her when she was young.

And four years ago, after being forced to drop out of school to be a wife and mother, Sherry finally got her high school diploma aged 55.

She now works tirelessly to help other children and young women who are forced to become child brides

Sherry said: “I am a mother of nine children. I am a grandmother of 34 grandchildren.

“I’m a great-grandmother of three children, with one on the way. And I’m grateful for that.

“It was hard, but I endure. The most grateful thing that I say is happening for me right now is to be able to talk about what happened in my past.

“To be able to help others. I was raped, and not only that, I was forced to marry my rapist at the age of 11.

“I ended up in a situation where it wasn’t easy to get out of, and that’s one of my reasons for doing what I do.

“My children, they are very proud of me coming forth. They’d say, ‘Go for it, Mom. Do what you feel like you need to do. I’m happy for you’.

“I consider myself a voice for the voiceless.”

In the US, Alaska and North Caroline had a minimum age limit to marry of 14, in four states in’s now 15, in 20 states it’s 16 and in eight it’s now 17.”

The Daily Mirror

1...606162...80Page 61 of 80

TRENDING

LATEST

POPULAR POSTS

POPULAR CATEGORY

© 2022 - News View Nigeria