New Telegraph 
Pauline Onyibe, Yenagoa
Women in Bayelsa State women decried their non-inclusion in designing strategies for the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic maintaining that women are not always included in governance at all levels in the state.
Participants, mainly women at a sensitization town hall meeting organised at the weekend at Ogbia by the Centre for Environment, Human rights and Development, (CEHRD) with support from the Embassy of the Netherlands Abuja, stated that the COVID-19 interventions strategies would have been more effective and less stressful if citizens including women were involved actively.
The women disclosed that the fight against the pandemic was supposed to a collective one stating that the pains associated with the enforcement of the COVID-19 by agents of the government in the state were unbearable.
Madam Preye Goin, one of the participants, said that people were subjected to all forms of hardships in the process of enforcing the COVID-19 preventive measures.
She said: “Commodities including food items suddenly became very scarce while available ones were very costly due to interstate boundary closures and closure of markets in neighbouring states.
“People’s rights were trampled upon with impunity while many had their
sources of livelihood destroyed.
“People were violently chased out of the
roads and streets by fierce looking agents of the state COVID-19 team. Goods were seized from market women and destroyed by task force operatives while security agents embarked on extortion spree extorting huge amounts of money from helpless traders whose means of survival was threatened.”
Speaking earlier, Daniel Ebebiri, representative of CEHRD, said that the meeting was aimed at creating awareness about COVID-19 and the preventive measures as rolled out by the government as well as finding out the implications
of the pandemic problem on citizen’s participation in governance.
CEHRD commended the women for their resilience, urging them not to be overwhelmed by the challenges thrown up by the pandemic.
Advising the women he said: “Participating in governance at all levels is your civic responsibility as well as a right that
should not be jettisoned due to fear of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He urged them to abide by the social distancing measures and constant washing
of hands and sanitizing as specified by government.
