Kaduna Women Protests As They Blame Chemical Plant For Their Husbands Infertility And Erectile Weakness

                                                                File Photo

Hundreds of women from the Rido community in Kaduna State have taken to the streets protesting their inability to conceive blaming environmental pollution from a nearby chemical plant for their plight. Blaming the degradation of the environment and the pollution of the air, the women took to the streets to protest the fact that they were not getting pregnant.

They stormed Kaduna, the state capital marching past the Nigerian Defense Academy junction, pointing out that their men suffer weak erection and infertility, while the women often miscarry their babies or their ovaries are affected.

According to the women, responsibility for their husbands' erectile dysfunction lies with the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC). They alleged that the chemical waste and fumes from the company into their environment, has, contributed to their husband's loss of sexual potency, making them unable to satisfy their women in bed.

Community leader Mohammed Bashar, said: "Most of the complaints could be associated with secondary infertility because victims have, in the past, given birth to children before they suddenly stopped. There was widespread belief that smoke and poisonous gases emitted from the refinery have reproductive health effect on people living in the area but no medical report has confirmed the allegation due to inability of villagers to seek comprehensive medical tests, perhaps owing to lack of awareness and poverty." 

According to local women, only environmental degradation can be responsible for the crisis. One married woman, Jummai Isaac, 27, said she has not been able to conceive since she got married in the year 2000. She added: "I haven’t conceived since I got married in the last 14years and doctors have, on several occasions, confirmed to me absence of any known cause of inability to get pregnant. Initially, doctors thought I had fibroid in my womb but after several scans and some medical tests, they dispelled that notion."