IT will soon become an offence in Ekiti State for places of religious worship such as churches and mosques to compel prospective couples to go for mandatory HIV/AIDS screening before conducting marriages for them.
It will also become an offence under the law to disclose results of such tests to other parties, before the person tested knows his or her status.
The Project Manager of Ekiti State Action Committee on HIV/AIDS (EKSACA), Dr Charles Olusegun Doherty, disclosed this in Ado Ekiti on Thursday, during the commemoration of year 2015 World's Aids Day and awareness programme.
Doherty said a bill to that effect was already receiving attention at the state House of Assembly, saying it would soon be passed into law.
Doherty said: "The bill is already in the state House of Assembly to be passed into law. It proposes to ban places of worship from demanding HIV test from prospective couples."
According to Doherty, "it is illegal for priests or other religious leaders to mandate prospective couples to go for HIV/AIDs test before marriage," adding "it is illegal for any individual or organisation, especially religious bodies, to mandate people to go for HIV/AIDs screening exercise. The results should also be given to the individual concerned because a couple should be treated individually."
He urged people not be scared of going for screening, saying there were drugs for the treatment of the condition.
Also speaking on the occasion, wife of the Ekiti State governor, Mrs Feyisetan Fayose, who led the awareness walk, canvassed for increased support in terms medication and creation of awareness against stigmatisation of HIV/AIDS patients.
Speaking on the sub-theme: "Stigma Ends with me", which held at the Adekunle Fajuyi Park in Ado-Ekiti, Mrs Fayose noted that the state government was concerned about the need to support the fight against HIV/AIDS.
She said: "Ekiti State government is not unmindful of the barriers to the treatment and prevention of the disease some of which include stigmatisation, lack of proper medication and support for awareness creation, among others. The state has been supporting the various agencies attending to cases of AIDS/HIV and will continue to do so.
"The state will particularly employ a muilti-faceted approach in terms of creating awareness, medication and other logistics in an effort to prevent the disease from spreading, treating victims and creating anti-stigmatisation awareness. "
The Ekiti State First Lady who expressed gratitude to all the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the state, for their support in the fight against AIDS, further enjoined all stateholders to gulvanise efforts towards ensuring eradication of the disease, just as she advised everyone in the state to go for HIV/AIDS test.
Expressing gratitude to Mrs Fayose and the Ekiti state governor for supporting the National Youth Service Corps(NYSC) members in the state, the state coordinator of the NYSC, Mr Tobias Ibeh said the governor's wife has been a mother to all corps members in the state, through her huge support in spite of the paucity of funds of the state. He also assured corps members in the state that the state governor had assured that the areas of their allowances from the state would be paid soon as promised.
Some NGOs such as the Foshpad Foundation for sustainable Health promotion and development, Kids and Teens, Centre For Better Health and Bill Gold, told stories of their achievements in the fight against AIDS/HIV.
