Violence against girls, women ‘disgraceful’ — Osinbajo

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has described gender-based violence, rape and sexual assaults as “a blemish on our collective humanity and dignity as a people and a nation”.

He added that the COVID-19 lockdown has occasioned a steep increase in sexual and gender-based violence across the country.

Osinbajo said this on Friday at a virtual meeting organized by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on the Scourge of Rape, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Nigeria.

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The vice president said he was told that between March 23, 2020 to May 29, 2020, the FCT Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Response Team received an overwhelming 105 incidents; an average of 13 incidents per week, up from the usual 5 to 6 incidents per week, pre-COVID-19.

He, however, said that the Muhammadu Buhari administration  is working harder to deal decisively with the problem of rape and gender-based violence.

He said the fight against rape and gender violence would be particularly driven down to the States through the National Economic Council (NEC), which he chairs.

Osinbajo restated that President Muhammadu Buhari and State Governors recently undertook to take drastic actions against gender-based violence.

According to him, there is need to look beyond just legislation to fix the problem, but rather, interrogate the deeply dysfunctional cultures, the systemic flaws in our institutions and the perverse social norms which enable sexual and gender-based violence.

He pledged the commitment of federal government to continue to use the platform of NEC to encourage States yet to domesticate the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act of 2015 and the Child Rights Act of 2003 to do so.

“We will work with all actors to detect and punish the perpetrators of these sickening acts and work even harder to prevent their occurrence.

“While violence against women has always been a challenge in Nigeria, the COVID-19 lockdown has occasioned a steep increase in sexual and gender-based violence across the country.

“Also, a few days ago the Inspector-General of Police disclosed that the police had recorded about 717 rape incidents across the country between January and May 2020.

“And that 799 suspects had so far been arrested, 631 cases conclusively investigated and charged to court while 52 cases are still under investigation.

“What these figures show is an escalation of an already disgraceful trend of violence against women and girls in the country,” Osinbajo also said in a statement issued on Friday by his spokesman, Laolu Akande.

He cited the rapes and murders of Mrs Queen Igbinevbo, a pregnant woman in her home in Edo State on May 20, 2020, and Vera Uwaila Omozuwa, a 22-year old student of University of Benin on May 27, 2020.

According to him, there is also the case of Barakat Bello, an 18-year old female student of Federal College of Animal Health and Production in Ibadan on June 1, 2020, among others, saying these assaults “should never have happened and must not be allowed to continue.”

Present at the virtual meeting was the Women Affairs Minister, Dame Paullen Tallen, the Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Tony Ojukwu, representatives of the United Nations and Civil Society Organizations.