Sexual and gender based violence is on the rise says, Women affairs Minister.
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The Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen says sexual and gender based violence which has assumed an alarming dimension must be tackled head long to guarantee the future of women and girls in the country.
Dame Tallen stated this in Abuja at a stakeholders’ meeting on Gender based violence and possible solutions in Nigeria.
The minister who said the menace was unacceptable, urged everyone to join in condemning the act and support victims.
The Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission, Mr. Tony Ojukwu, represented by the Director Women and Children, Mr. Harry Obe said the global problem of gender based violence required a coordinated national solution.
Mr. Ojukwu said last year, the commission received One million, seven hundred thousand, three hundred and fifty-seven reports, out of which over nine hundred thousand bothered on women and children. He said out of this number, one hundred and fifty-eight thousand was on sexual violence.
The Executive Chairperson of a non-governmental organization, Roost Foundation, Ms. Julie Okah-Donli expressed worry that homes, schools, worship centers and other public places were no longer safe for women and children due to their vulnerability to sexual violence.
Ms. Okah-Donli condemned harmful widowhood practices and female genital mutilation which were also on the rise in parts of the country.
According to her, while conventional and social media has assisted in bringing cases of sexual violence to the limelight; the justice sector must do more in the effective prosecution of the perpetrators.
