Despite available legal framework to tackle the menace of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in Nigeria, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has decried the spate of violence in the country particularly among women and girls.
The UN agency says 1 in 4 Nigerian girls experienced sexual violence before the age of 15.
Ibrahim Sesay, senior child protection specialist UNICEF described the trend as unpleasant adding that 19 percent of girls are married off before the age of 15. Sasay said this at a media dialogue on Ethical Reporting and Advocacy to Eliminate Violence against Women and girls in the FCT organised by Spotlight Initiative Nigeria in Abuja on Monday.
Also speaking, Ngozi Ike, desk officer, Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Response, lamented the slow pace of trials and convictions of suspected sex offenders. She said in FCT alone, there are 444 cases of sexual offences but only one conviction has been recorded this year. This according to her is not good enough.
The director, National Orientation Agency, FCT, Mary Tanko, said poor confidence in security agencies, stigmatization, corruption are also factors that fuels GBV in Nigeria
Tanko stated that issues of violence are also rampant in communities where drug abuse is tolerated.
Also speaking, Tochukwu Odele, child protection officer, UNICEF said a majority of girls experience sexual violence at home adding that it is rarely an isolated incident. She also said girls and women with disability are twice at more risk.
“Most of these girls that are abused by people that are either close to them or well known to them. Most of them don’t report their abuse because they are scared of being stigmatised. Also, girls with disabilities are twice likely to experience violence of any form,” she said.
Odele further regretted that most states, especially in the northern part of the country were yet to domesticate the Child Right Acts (2003), a legal framework that is instrumental in curbing the menace.
Odele informed that 13 out of 36 states were yet to sign the law in Nigeria, and this she noted us worsening the incidences of violence against women in Nigeria.
