The Upper East Regional women wing of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has given CEO of Inspire Today, Rita Etornam Sey a 7-day ultimatum to apologize if she is unable to prove her claim that young women in the 5 regions of the North use clay in place of sanitary pad during menstruation.
In a statement signed by the party’s Regional Women’s Organizer, Fawzia Abagnamah Yakubu, it questioned how clay could be used to catch menstrual flow, describing Ms. Etornam’s claim as palpable falsehood and affront to the dignity of women in these regions.
“We are stating unequivocally that it’s a palpable lie and not even in the ancient days did girls of Northern Ghana ever use clay as substitute for sanitary pads. Such wicked falsehood is an affront to the dignity of Northern girls,” it stated.
Madam Fawzia, speaking this morning in an interview on Breakfast News, said the wing will take legal action should Ms. Etornam Sey fail to comply with its 7-day ultimatum to either prove her claims or render an apology to the people of Northern Ghana.
“If we don’t hear anything from her, we will follow the legal process and let her do the right thing because we as Northern women don’t joke with our personal hygiene. For that matter, we would not allow her use us to get what she wants from sponsors. After the 7 days if we don’t hear anything from her, she will hear something different from us”.
In a series of media interviews ahead of this year’s World Menstrual Hygiene Day, CEO of Inspire Today, Rita Etornam Sey claimed that young women in Northern Ghana use clay as substitute for sanitary pad to catch menstrual flow.
Ms. Etornam Sey, who donated sanitary products to some schoolgirls in the Upper East Region, added that she found out about this when she visited that part of the country as part of her outfit’s outreach activities.
But the comment by the Inspire Today CEO sparked outrage among indigenes of the North.
Some of them, who took to social media to register their displeasure, called her out for what they say are lies she peddled about the area.
They said such a practice does not exist anywhere in the North but is only fabrication by Ms. Etornam to win donor support.
They demanded that she proves her claim or apologises for denigrating them.
They also took on the media outlets, which granted her the interviews, for allowing her to make such utterances on their platforms without any prove.
TV3 Network, one of the media outlets, on which platforms she made the claim, has since apologised and distanced itself from the said comment.
