CSOs demand state of emergency over sexual violence
Acoalition of nongovernmental and civil society organizations in Bauchi State has staged a protest against persistent violence against women and girls in different parts of the country and called for a state of emergency on the menace.
The Executive Director of Attah Sisters’ Helping Hands Foundation, Mrs. Comfort Attah who addressed newsmen after the rally on behalf of the organizations, urged federal and state lawmakers in the country to push for reforms that could address the recurrent violence against women and girls.
Attah who described as worrisome, the escalating reports of violence against women and girls said declaring a state of emergency on rape cases was necessary to check the trend.
She said since the outbreak of COVID-19, the number of calls from service providers on violence against women and girls had been on the increase in the state, adding that the service providers could not assist the victims because they were trapped in their houses with their abusers.
“In the past one week alone, a 16-year-old girl was abducted and gang-raped in Bauchi State. Again, Uwa was raped and killed in a church in Benin while Tina was shot dead in Lagos. Another 12-year-old girl was raped in Jigawa State. Barakat was raped and stabbed to death and these are the only few reported. We need justice and a declaration of a state of emergency,” she said.
She said statistics had revealed that one in four girls in Nigeria is sexually assaulted before she reaches the age of 18, but regretted that only 65 rape convictions were successfully completed between 1973 and 2019.
“In many cases, the security settles the cases at household or family levels,” she said.
She noted that before the COVID 19 crisis, the national data from 2018 showed an increase in the percentage of women who experienced physical violence since the age of 18, from 11% in 2013 to 14% in 2018, adding that there was a continuous increase in the number of cases due to lack of access to medical services and justice.
The Programme Officer, Federation of Muslim Women
Association of Nigeria, (FOMWAN) Fauziya Idriss, said concerted efforts were needed in place to curtail persistent violence against women and girls in the country, adding that CSOs across the country were poised to ensure that pragmatic steps were taken against such problems.
The Bauchi State Commissioner for Justice, Barrister Yakubu Bello Kirfi, said his ministry was in consultation with relevant stakeholders, including CSOs to arrest the situation.
“Already the Bauchi State government is taking some measures including holding the perpetrators accountable, in partnership with CSOs like yours, we shall address these problems and bring the perpetrators to book,” he added.