By Lukman Olabiyi and Semilore Alade
The Lagos State Government yesterday revealed that it recorded a total of 4,860 cases of domestic violence, rape, sexual assaults and others within 10 months.
The state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Moyosore Onigbanjo, made the disclosure at a news conference to commemorate the Domestic and Sexual Violence Awareness Month, September 2022, in Ikeja, yesterday. The figures covered the period of September 1, 2021 to July 31, 2022.
Onigbanjo also listed Alimosho, Ikorodu, Kosofe, Eti- Osa, and Oshodi as the top five volatile Local Government Areas (LGAs) for cases involving adults, while Alimosho, Kosofe, Oshodi-Isolo, Ikorodu and Ifako-Ijaiye were top five volatile LGAs for cases involving children.
Giving a breakdown, Onigbanjo said there were 2,029 domestic violence cases, 65 rape cases, 40 sexual assault cases, 10 rape attempts, five sexual assault by penetration, 73 threats to life and 488 others, such as separation and neglect, among others.
Others included 113 child abuse/physical assaults, 194 defilement cases, 15 defilements/molestations by minor to minor, 105 child labour, abduction neglect and 145 sexual harassment/molestation cases.
The Attorney General added that a total of 1,578 children had experienced emotional abuse, explaining that 55 percent of such children had been taken through counselling programmes to ensure they were able to psychologically deal with the events they had witnessed without it having permanent and negative impacts on them.
“We have also witnessed an increase in reported cases from other states, mostly from Ogun, Abia, Anambra and others, respectively. In the past 11 months, a total of 394 cases occurred outside Lagos. Such cases were promptly referred to the relevant agencies in their respective states.
“The Office of the Public Defender, as well as the Lagos Public Interest Law Partnership (LPILP) have provided free legal representations to 110 survivors of domestic violence, ranging from judicial separation, divorce, maintenance, custody of children and settlement.
“All the survivors of sexual assault received medical attention from Comprehensive Primary Health Care Centres, General Hospitals and Sexual Assault Referral Centres like Mirabel Centre, Women at Risk International Foundation (WARIF) as well as Idera Centre,” he said.
Moyosore disclosed that the agency had provided services to nine people with disabilities who were experiencing one form of gender-based violence or the other.
(Continued on www.sunnewsonline.com)
He further revealed that the youngest child that experienced sexual violence in the year under review was eight months, while the oldest clients who experienced domestic violence were 75-year-old woman and 89-year-old man.
On the domestic and sexual violence awareness month, September, 2022, the Attorney General said since 2015, the DSVRT had commemorated the Domestic and Sexual Violence Awareness Month, which has traditionally been in the month of September, to coincide with the month the Team was established in 2014.