Who really is Oluchi Mbonu?

 Its with pleasure that I read that activities are being planned already towards 2016: 16 days of Activism against Gender Based  Violence.

Someone like us who would probably have love to attend if she still had her freedom is Oluchi Mbonu, the female banker who has been accused of hiring assassins to kill her estranged husband, but she can't  attend because she is being held behind bars in police custody in Ogun state. See http://www.lindaikejisblog.com/2016/10/update-on-female-banker-accused-of.html

We must follow her story keenly, to establish the facts, just perhaps this is truly a set up by a bitter and estranged husband. 

More importantly is the alleged role of our security forces in this case, have they connived against her? If so this is dangerous, and yet another form of reinforced patriarchy. 

An update on the case is that our sister organisation Project Alert( and I think with coalitions of women NGO and Lawyers or so )  has held a press conference on the matter  and just last week I saw that our sister organisations ( Arise Women) and (GADA) held an extensive human rights training for the security forces.  Can we begin to link this activities up and refer them to real life cases like Oluchis?

 What, has women can be bring to the table to see this through to the end? I mean  social capital, eg

 Are you a female lawyer who can join her legal team or be an adviser? 

Are you a media practitioner that can use your platform to gain public awareness and interest on the matter, can we organize activities to demand justice? 

Can we fundraise towards legal needs?

Can we send Oluchi solidarity messages, cards, poems, just to let her know we stand by her?

How is her daughter faring in this situation? Is she still in school, how about her emotional well being? How can we support her?

I am sure there is something however little that we can do from our little corners.

Remember  an injustice to one is an injustice to all, If we can rally round her now we would be one step ahead in ending violence against women and patriarchy

Our collective number and strength as women is our power.

Kudos to all who have stood up for her so far.

Abimbola Junaid.