The Federal Government has been called upon to tackle the growing rate of gender-based violence in recent times or risk having an epidemic within a pandemic.
The call was made by a non-governmental organisation (NGO), CLEEN Foundation via a statement released in Abuja on Tuesday.
In the statement signed by its executive director, Benson Olugbuo,Ph.D, the group raised the alarm over the increase in cases of sexual and gender-based violence since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria.
Olugbuo blamed “weak enforcement of laws, lack of diligent prosecution of rape suspects, stigmatisation of rape victims, culture, traditions and patriarchy” among others, for the alarming increase.
He went on to cite a number of cases.
“The deaths of Vera Uwaila Omosuwa, 22 years old, a student of University of Benin in Edo State and Barakat Bello, 18 years old, a student of the Federal College of Animal and Production Technology, Moor Plantation, Apata, Ibadan, Oyo State sparked national outcry in Nigeria and mobilised activists to demonstrate for an end to sexual and gender based violence in Nigeria. Despite the outcry, more cases have emerged which shows a pattern of impunity and lack of effective government response.
“In the South-West region, there were two reported cases of rape of two young girls in Oyo and Ekiti States respectively. Unfortunately, the victim in Oyo was murdered in cold blood while report from Ekiti indicated that some of the suspects were apprehended and brought to the office of the wife of the Governor who prompted handing over of the suspects to the police for investigation.
“…on Wednesday 3rd June 2020, men of Ogun State Police Command arrested a 25- year-old man, Wasiu Bankole, for forcefully having carnal knowledge of a 70-year-old woman while she was asleep. The suspect was arrested 24 hours after he committed the offence at Abule Lemode, Ijoko in the Ado-Odo/Ota local government area of the state. On Thursday, 4th June 2020, a 12-year-old girl, was gang-raped by four masked men at her residence in Abijo area of Ajah, Lagos State. She was said to have been raped while playing alone in the compound around 2pm on Thursday 4th June 2020. Similarly, in the North West region, a 12-year-old girl was purportedly raped by a middle-aged (57) man at Limawa quarters in Dutse local government area of Jigawa state. She has also been allegedly raped by eleven (11) men at different occasions.
“A 13-year old girl was allegedly gang raped in Kaduna state by four men who had whisked her away on a bike. The Kaduna State Ministry of Human Services and Social Development has since launched an investigation. It was gathered that the girl was drugged before being raped. She was later dumped underneath a stationary vehicle near her house.”
Olugbuo said, even though the Nigeria Governors Forum has responded by declaring rape an emergency and calling on governors to adopt laws that will strengthen capacity to deal with sexual and gender-based violence and the Federal Government has announced the composition of an Inter-ministerial Gender-based Violence Management Committee to tackle issues of sexual and gender-based violence in Nigeria, “the CLEEN Foundation will monitor and report on the effectiveness of these policies announced by both federal and state governments”.
