Yobe State Ministry for Women Affairs with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has engaged key stakeholders to promote the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) VAPP Act.
Speaking at the one-day meeting in Damaturu, the commissioner in charge of the ministry, Hajiya Hauwa Bah Abubakar, said the act sought to tackle the continuous and persistent increase in the cases of violence against women and other related offences.
According to her, the meeting is aimed at enlightening the stakeholders and the entire people in the state on the VAPP act.
She said the act was passed into law at the national level in 2015 with the expectation that each state of the federation would domesticate it.
She commended the Yobe State House of Assembly for working so hard to pass the act, which is now awaiting the governor’s assent.
The State Coordinator, UNFPA, Yobe State, Auwal Bashir said about N40 million has so far been spent to see the realisation of the law in the state.
A member of the House Committee on Justice and Judiciary, Buba Ibrahim Kalallawa assured that when the bill is assented into law, it would reduce the rate of violence and abuses on the vulnerable, especially women and children in the state.
