From Joseph Amedu, Lokoja
INGRA Executive Director, Hamza Aliu Ibrahim Speaking During the Roundtable Discussion with Participants listening will rapt attention
A Civil Society Organisation, Initiative for Grassroot Advancement in Nigeria (INGRA), has called on the Kogi State governor, Ahmed Usman Ododo to assent the bill protecting Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Patients, recently passed by the Kogi State House of Assembly.
The Executive Director of the Organisation, Hamza Aliu Ibrahim made the call at a one-day Media Roundtable Discussion to address issues around HIV Stigma Reduction in Kogi State.
Hamza Aliu who commended the Kogi State House of Assembly for the quick passage of the bill inview of its importance, demanded for Governor Ododo’s assent to the law without further delay.
He said that the Roundtable Discussion tagged “Advancing the HIV anti-stigma Bill and Addressing Issues Around HIV Stigma Reduction in Kogi State, is a welcome development that requires all seriousness to realised as a result of its human face.
He used the forum to warn against further stigmatization of HIV patients and solicited for their equally rights as well as according them of all opportunities available for all citizens.
According to him “HIV patients must not be discriminated against. They should be accorded all needed rights like other citizens to live without stigmatization such as rights to constitutional provisions, marriage, privacy, education, religious worship, employment as well as freedom of association and interaction among others”
