100 marshals to tackle GBV in FCT

The Senator representing the FCT, Ireti Kingibe, has said that she will establish “Orange Marshals” and deploy 100 volunteers in the FCT to fight against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV).

Mrs Kingibe disclosed this in an interview on the sidelines of the Beeta Arts Festival, an event aimed at using arts to drive home the message of SGBV, in Abuja.

She said the volunteers, to be called Orange Troopers, would be made up of 100,000 volunteers per state to galvanise grassroots fight against SGBV, adding that with that many people monitoring SGBV in communities, things would get better.

She noted that Nigeria sought to empower individuals to stand against violence by fostering social conversations in collaboration with the National Gender-Based Violence (GBV) data Situation Room and dashboard.

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She said that since the UN inaugurated the situation room and dashboard, over 28,000 cases of GBV had been reported nationwide, with over 9,000 cases opened against offenders, while over 8,000 cases were pending in various courts.

She added that over 8,800 cases had been withdrawn either by the courts, community intervention, families or victims.

She further said, “The number of convictions are 455; really very small compared to the number of cases. Sadly, the number of fatalities from GBV are over 1,250.

“The ‘Orange Nigeria Mandate’ is anchored on nine strategic orange forward constituency development programmes that empower Nigerians across 8,000 wards to take a stand against SGBV.

“One of the things I will be doing is that by mid-January, I am going to call for volunteers from FCT wards; they will be Orange Marshals who will monitor GBV in their respective wards and report them. Until we do it that way, we can’t make much impact.

“There are laws already; it is the enforcement that is the problem. However, as a legislator, I will get those gender bills that were rejected to ensure that they get passed this time because this Senate is more gender-aware, and I am hopeful that those bills will pass.” (NAN)