The Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Welfare, Dr. Glory Emmanuel Edet, has solicited for total support and fervent prayers of members of Esop Mbong Iban, a pan socio-economic women leaders’ organisation in the state, for the success of Gov. Udom Emmanuel’s government.

Dr. Edet made the appeal while hosting to the executive members of the organisation in a meeting she had with them in her office in Uyo, the state capital.

Acknowledging the fact that “leadership comes from God”, Dr. Edet stressed that leaders needed the prayers of all men and women of goodwill at all times, “as nobody can actually succeed without God’s intervention.”

She urged the women to give their full cooperation and unflinching supports to the wife of the governor, Mrs. Martha Udom Emmanuel, “just as you gave to her predecessor, Mrs. Ekaette Unoma Akpabio,” and also enjoined them to help in ensuring that children were not abused in whatever form, but that their rights and privileges, as entrenched in the Child Rights Law, were upheld and respected by all.

The commissioner, who acknowledged the various contributions so far made by the women group in counseling women to ‘’be good and respectful wives and mothers, for the betterment of the society’’, urged them not to relent in their efforts of ensuring that Akwa Ibom children were protected from the brutality of some parents/guardians.

She stated that “since children are no commodities, child trafficking is a crime against God and humanity’’, and she called on members of the organisation “as good and caring mothers and lovable grandmothers” to help in the fight against such vices in their respective domains, warning: “My Ministry will not hesitate to prosecute such offenders.”

Dr. Edet, who pledged to improve their welfare, as she would equally look into other requests presented to her, the commissioner urged them to cooperate with, and support wives of the transition committee chairmen of their respective local government areas in the state.

Also speaking at the occasion, the Permanent Secretary of the Women Affairs and Social Welfare Ministry, Mrs. Cecilia Inyang, who expressed her appreciation to members of the Esop, for being mentors to women in the state, reassured them of the ministry’s determination to fulfill its ministerial responsibilities to the populace in the state.

In her remarks, the President of the Esop Mbong Iban, Akamba Obonganwan Christiana Ebinda, while congratulating the commissioner on her reappointment into the state executive council and subsequent redeployment to the Women Affairs and Social Welfare Ministry, noted that it was a “well deserved appointment, to enable her to accomplish her good works from where she had stopped” during her last stint in the ministry.

The president assured the commissioner of her group’s “unflinching support for the new government and her ministry,” saying that her organisation had taken it as a responsibility to be praying for the protection and success of the present administration in Akwa Ibom State.

The commissioner was flanked at the courtesy visit, by two directors as well as two heads of departments in the ministry. They were, Mrs. Edima Ndaobong, Director of Women Affairs and Mrs. Veronica Okon, Director, Child Development Department, while the two HODs were, Barr. Bassey Ekah, Legal Department and Mercy Ukpong of the Social Welfare Department.

The other executive members of the Esop Mbong Iban on the entourage included their vice president, Obonganwan Felicita Usoro, Akwa Obonganwan Iquo Udom of Ukanafun Local Government Area, and Obonganwan Eta Ibok, respectively.

•Photo shows Dr. Glory Emmanuel Edet.