By David Eze, Abakaliki
The Chairperson of International Federation of Women lawyers FIDA, Ebonyi State Branch, is Barr Grace I. P. Chima. She was elected on the 17th day of July, 2019 and since then she has been so committed and dedicated to the work as FIDA Chairperson. Two years into her tenure as the Chairperson she worked so hard in getting justice for so many Victims/Survivors of Gender Based Violence and also provided succor when necessary to the most indigent Women and Girls as the FIDA mission recommends.
Grace Iheanacho Chima (Esq) gained admission at the Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, in the year 2001 and obtained her LL. B in the year 2007. She went to the Nigerian Law School, Enugu Campus in Enugu State and was called to the Nigerian Bar on 29th September 2009.
Born on 6th May 1978 into the family of Osuu and Mrs Iwuchukwu Ekumankama (of blessed memories) of Amangwu Edda in Afikpo South LGA of Ebonyi State. She is married with children.
What was your motivation, what moved you to aspire for the chairperson of FIDA?
Like I have said earlier, the main objective of FIDA is to protect the right of women and children. The rate at which women and children are suffering from injustice seems to be on the increase. There are so many cases of violence against women such as sexual offences like rape and domestic violence against women. We discovered that we needed to do something, we are not just lawyers to be doing our cases in court, but being a FIDAN, we go the extra mile by virtue of the passion we have for the job, to ensure that no woman, no girl child suffers any form of injustice. Most importantly, some of these people are so indigent that they cannot even afford the cost of justice. We ensure that we do everything legally within our powers to get justice for them, and ensure that they don’t pay anything. Our aim is to be a voice for the voiceless and a hope to the hopeless and by God’s grace we are doing it.
Can you give us instances of your works in FIDA?
I became the chairperson, in the month of July 2019, and from that time till now we have done over fifty cases, of rape, over twenty cases of spousal battery, over ten cases of widowhood practices. In fact, there is this one case of a widow that just happened last week. Someone encroached on her late husband’s land where they are residing. She tried to stop them, (it’s actually a church that encroached on her land) they beat her up, did a lot of things to her, locked her in the cell, and then placed charges against her and took her to court. We had to come in when she came here and lamented and cried, but I want to tell you that we stepped into the matter, even though it’s still in court.
FIDA has intervened and we know the extent we have come to ensure that we make her regain what she has lost. We are still on the matter. Sometimes last year a widow came to us, shortly after the lockdown, she lost her husband in 2019 over Lassa, her brother in-laws, shortly before the burial of the man, came and took all the landed property, documents that were in her possession including where they were residing. They also took the power of attorney of the land and even the truck the man was using to do his business. She came and cried to us and we moved into action immediately, barely two three months, we were able to recover those entire document and handed it over to her, including the truck. So this is what we can do. We followed the procedure of the law and recovered all for her.
On the issues of sexual offences like rape, we have recorded so many cases. We have a case of rape where a father violated his own daughter, somewhere at Amasiri, the mother was the one that called us having noticed that the girl was violated, and when she questioned the girl, she opened up that it was her father and there was a medical report also. We did everything legally and the man is behind bars now, the matter is still in court. We have also had another case of rape, a boy of 18 years with the habit of raping little children of 2, 3, 4, 6 years and would threaten them that if they talk they will be killed. It kept happening for months and nobody knew, until the little one among them, the one that’s 3 years somehow opened up to her own mother. She told her that her private part was paining her, and after serious examination the mother asked her and she opened up. That was how the five girls came up, and this boy gave them STDs, but when we came in we did everything to help out medically, the matter is in court now.
What strategy do you apply in curtailing gender based violence?
We normally go on sensitization, like going to school outreach, sometimes we go for campaigns. We have done about four different campaigns in about three local governments, we carry placards and move round the town, saying these things for people to know that we have laws now that protect them, This is to make them speak up. All these while people don’t know that we have such laws that protect them from spousal battery, from widowhood practices, from rape, that’s why they’ll decide to die in silence and the culprits will go scot free. But when we sensitize them, talk to them, we give our hot lines, we inform them about these laws. We visit the media as well on several occasions, to tell people, especially the law on violence against women, which was domesticated in this state in 2018, that law is encompassing.
How do you source your funds?
It’s a humanity service; FIDA Nigeria has partnership with the United Nations, Action Aid. Our partnership with the national body enables us access to funding, but so far, we also go the extra mile. We don’t wait for such provisions before we go to work, we don’t just fold our hands, like right now, there are so many cases with us and we have not received any assistance. What we do is task ourselves. As the chairperson I go on my way to use my vehicle and fuel, just to ensure that we get justice for the victim, our members also contribute their resources. We have patients in the hospital, we pay their bills.
What are your challenges?
Like what we just said now it’s part of the challenges, like we have a case of a woman that’s coming for surgery in two weeks time, she encountered gender based violence and was chased out of the house. Her husband died and her children were kidnapped; now she has serious health challenges that require surgery. When we took her to the hospital two weeks ago, were the ones that paid the money. As I speak to you now, we are hoping to get funds to pay for the surgery, we need partnership with the people and the government, because these people are part of the society. We are asking for help to save the lives of these indigent ones.
What is your advice for the people?
My advice for people is that it is no longer time to keep quiet and die in silence. People see some of these things and still show nonchalant attitudes. We are encouraging them, when they see anything they should call on us. People should begin to open up, culture of silence should be broken. Also, I want to tell people that ignorance of the law is not an excuse, let it serve as deterrent to all those that may want to violate our laws. Let them know that the law will catch up with them if they are in the habit of defiling girls and causing all sorts of violence against women. They should stop otherwise the law will come after them.
