By Ahmad Deedat Zakari
Women miners in Nigeria under the auspices of Women in Mining in Nigeria (WIMIN), decry molestation and abuse by male colleagues at mining sites in the country.
The Founder and National president of WIMIN, Janet Adeyemi made the disclosure at Lokoja on Sunday, December 11, 2022 and sought the intervention of the federal government to tackle the menace.
Ms Adeyemi while speaking at a capacity building workshop for artisans and small-scale miners in Lokoja, said the abuse of women at mining sites have become rampant.
She noted that women in mining have become subjects of constant molestation, are often cheated, over-laboured, underpaid, and even raped by male colleagues and staff of the mining industries.
Adeyemi who was represented by the Programme Coordinator of WIMIN, Ms Dolaraine Dennis, said that the opportunities for women in mining are enormous and they include: operators, engineers and quarry fields etc.
Adeyemi claimed that research findings have shown that 73 per cent of assault against women are verbal.
“73 per cent of assaults against women are verbal.”she said
In the remark of the Kogi State Commissioner For Women Affairs, Hajia Fatima Buba, she applauded the organisers for their support in building the capacity of women in the mining sector in the state.
