The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Abbas Tajuddeen, the Chairperson, House Committee on Women Affairs, Rep. Kafilat Ogbara, the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu and the House Leader, Prof. Julius Ihonvere have led a symbolic march and submitted a petition to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, urging him to address gender-based violence.
The symbolic march was part of a 16-day advocacy organised by the House and supported the UN Women and other international and domestic organisations.
The petition presented to the IGP by Rep. Ogbara at the Police Headquarters on Monday charged him to take drastic actions against persons perpetrating violence against women in the country.
Presenting the petition, the lawmaker stated that there were disturbing trends and reports of abuse of women and girls in the country.
She said, “We call to action, urgent action, to combat gender-based violence during the 16 days of activism and beyond. We rise to bring to your esteemed attention the harrowing plight of Nigerian women. Our studies indicate that one in three women globally are victims of gender-based violence in Nigeria.
“Reports at the National Demographic and Health Survey reveal that 30% of women aged 15 to 49 have experienced physical violence with many suffering abuse at the hands of intimate partners. I’m going to be summarising this like this. We are only here to speak to the IGP.
“But you should please help us to tell all our policemen and women across the nation that when we have issues of gender-based violence at the police stations, we want to get justice.
“The House of Representatives under the leadership of Right Honorable Tajuddeen Abas and Right Honorable Benjamin Kalu have united in one voice to say that there is no excuse for violence against our women and our girls. They are our mothers. They are our daughters. They are our family. They care for us. They nurture us.
“Why should we violate them? We are saying no to lecturers violating students that they will fail them if they do not yielding. We are saying no to bosses at work for violating their secretaries, their staff, that if they do not yielding, they will sack them. We are saying no to all forms of violence against our children and our girls.
“Fathers raping daughters. Uncles raping children. Boys raping girls.We want a no to this. We say no to violence. No excuse for violence.I hereby present this petition to you, sir. Thank you very much for giving us the attention. We appreciate you. We appreciate all that you do.”
In his address before the commencement of the symbolic march, the Speaker reiterated the commitment of the House to address the challenges facing women especially violence against them.
He said, “We in the parliament must have to unite more than ever before with relevant authorities, particularly the law enforcement agencies to ensure that we curb this dangerous trend to the barest minimum.
“I want to say it categorically clear here that the National Assembly will do everything humanly possible to ensure that all forms of violence against women and girls are drastically reduced, if not completely eliminated in the nearest future.
“I want to also announce that the National Assembly, particularly the House of Representatives will play an active role in the next national action plan against violence against women that will be coming up very soon.
“The House of Representatives will also participate actively in ensuring that policies are enacted that will significantly reduce the incidents of violence of all kinds against women, against children, against girls”.
In his remark after receiving the petition, Egbetokun assured of police readiness to continue addressing violence against women in all its ramifications.
He said, “This occasion serves as a reminder that eradicating gender-based violence across the country is a collective effort. It is not only the law enforcement actions alone, it is not only by law enforcement actions that we can eliminate gender-based violence but it is a collective obligation on everyone of us.
“Gender-based violence has continued to devastate lives across the globe and in the continent of Africa, thousands of girls and women have continued to suffer domestic violence, sexual assaults. There are some areas where the tradition abuses the rights of women. We’ve cases of genital mutilation and others like that, so it’s a collective effort that we must all fight, we must come together to eradicate this unacceptable reality.
“Since 2006, the Nigerian Police Force has developed what we call gender policy which is implementing global framework and we are committed to implementing that policy until today. We will treat this petition as expected”.
Speaking to our reporter during the March, the Director of Development, African Centre for Leadership Strategy and Development (Centre LSD), Dr Margaret Fagboyo, noted that the centre created awareness about the need to address violence against women in the country.
According to her, the centre is carrying out various programmes across states to sensitise women as well as all stakeholders in the position of leadership including religious leaders to ensure the protection of women and girls against abuse and other harmful socio-cultural practices that discriminate against them.
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