Niger Govt moves to check gender based violence

From John Adams, Minna

Worried by the rising cases of Gender Based Violence in the state, the Niger state government has inaugurated a 20 member management committee with a view to curbing the menace of Gender and domestic Based Violence mostly among women.

The 20 Member management committee drawn from across all the relevance agencies, Ministries, parastatals and other critical stakeholders, has the wife of the Governor, Dr. Amina Abubakar Sani Bello as the Chairperson.

Inaugurating the committee at the council chamber, government house in Minna on Monday, the state Governor Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello said the constitution of the state Gender Based Violence Committee is long overdue “considering the rising cases of this criminal act in recent times”.

The governor pointed out that no responsible government will fold its hand and watch the right of certain people in the society being abused on a daily bases, stressing that “the cases of Gender Based Violence has been on the increase and this is not acceptable”.

Governor Bello said the committee is mandated, among other things, to address all issues related to Gender Based Violence in the state with a view to curb the ugly phenomenon, adding that “this will pave way for a better and decent society”.

Although he admitted that the Gender Based Violence is peculiar to women and girls alone, available statistic shows that women and girls are more at the receiving end than their male counterparts.

Speaking shortly after it inauguration, the Chairperson and wife of the governor Dr. Amina Abubakar Sani Bello said there is no better time to take a concrete step towards addressing the Gender Based Violence in our society than now, “because the phenomenon is deeply rooted in our communities”.

She expressed regret that Gender Based Violence has sent many innocent women and girls to their early and therefore believed that the responsibility for curbing this disturbing phenomenon lies with all as critical stakeholders.

According to her, the statistics of Gender Based Violence in the state is quite worrisome, especially during COVID 19 Lockdown, pointing out that “there were exponential increase in the number of cases of rape, ranging from old women and children of less than three months”.

For instance, Dr. Bello disclosed that “in 2020 alone, 133 cases were reported with only eight convictions out of 77 prosecutions”, stressing that “this number is highly unacceptable and these perpetrators go back into the society and continue their evil”.