The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Kano office, has said that it received 1,300 Gender-Based Violence (GBV) complaints from January to October, 2022.
The State Coordinator NHRC, Shehu Abdullahi, who disclosed this at a town hall meeting with the theme: “United Activism to End Violence Against Women and Girls”, said the meeting was organised by Fridabs Solacebase Communication in partnership with the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism and the MacArthur Foundation.
He said, “All relevant stakeholders need to come together and take proper care of this prevalent issue as it is getting worse daily. Women and girls should learn to come out and tell the relevant authorities whenever they are molested or attacked or else it can’t be dealt with.”
Abdulateef Abubakar, the publisher of Solacebase, said it was an annual event that was set aside by the United Nations (UN) to mark 16 days of activism to end violence against women and girls.
Bauchi education commissioner, Tilde, resigns
NEDC spends N75bn on 647 projects in 2 years
He said activities commenced on November 25 every year to eliminate violence against women and girls and ended December 10, which is the International Human Rights Day.
He further said, “Effort has been put in place to check violence against girls and women. When we look at the cultural aspect among us, normally there is silence whenever there is a case of GBV, some of the violators walk around freely as if they did nothing wrong.
“Most of these victims refuse to come and tell the relevant authorities that they have been abused, raped or beaten by their spouses; they rather keep quiet and die in silence. This should be banned entirely in order to save life and ensure that the violators are put to shame and punishment.”