Follow Us on Google
By Christopher Oji
Stakeholders in security have warned those involved in violence against women and girls to desist from the act, as it is a serious crime that attracts grave punishment upon conviction.
The stakeholders, who spoke during the “Awareness Symposium On Measuring Gender-related Killing of Women and Girls (Femicide)” in Lagos State to present recommendations for data systems improvements, advocacy and action, held in Ikeja, warned that the number of homicide cases, especially against women, in Lagos and Nigeria as a whole was becoming alarming.
The pathologist of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), ACP Samuel Keshinro, a medical practitioner, said, to stem the menace of femicide in the country, Nigeria needs to collect and aggregate data as well as deploy trained manpower.
Keshinro, making a case for innovative approaches to tackling gender-based violence (GBV), including femicide, said the symposium was part of a research sponsored by the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative (D4H), as part of a broader series of activities designed to enhance data-driven decision-making within the police.
The pathologist said the framework was based on globally accepted concepts and principles designed to enhance the consistency of crime statistics and improve analytical capabilities, both nationally and internationally.
The symposium, which brought together lawyers, members of the civil society, state actors and security operatives, aimed to raise awareness about GBV, violence against women and girls (VAWG), and the extreme manifestation of such crimes, femicide.
It sought to bridge statistical gaps and establish a framework for measuring femicides within the Nigeria Police Force and other government agencies, thereby bolstering efforts to end such acts.
In his keynote address, the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Babajide Martins, explained that all SGBV, including femicide, threatened women and girls’ capacity to develop to their full potential.
He cited laws in the country that prohibited gender discrimination and violence against women such as Sections 15(2), 42(1) of the Constitution; the Violence Against Person Prohibition Act (VAPP), 2015; the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 (as amended); Sexual Violence Law, 2021; and the Child Rights Law.
Martins, a medical doctor, said the administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has taken steps to create a secure and safe environment that prioritises inclusion and gender equality for all citizens.
“The THEMES+ agenda emphasises the need for concerted measures to ensure the security of Lagos State.
“The gender distribution within Lagos State shows that 40.5% are female and this represents women’s perspective and a pivotal segment of the demography.
“The state, in its commitment in ensuring the creation of a safe haven for both the indigent and affluent members of the public, has created laws to prohibit gender-based violence and prosecution of the same.
“Also, the state has made provisions for the Sexual Offences Court, for the prosecution of gender-based violence offences.
“The government of Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu is committed to ending femicide and SGBV and we look forward to the outcome of this research and thank the sponsors for the support of this initiative,” he said.
Earlier, in his welcome address,
the Force Medical Officer, CP Emmanuel Garba, said the focus of the symposium was to engage in meaningful dialogue to chart a way to addressing femicide.
He said it was an opportunity to present recommendations for improving data systems, advocacy and actionable steps to combat femicides in the country, with the focus on Lagos State.
“As we know, femicides are not just statistics, they represent the lives of women and girls who have been lost, families shattered, and communities left to grapple with the aftermath of the death of their loved ones.
“The urgency of addressing this issue cannot be overstated. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that every woman and girl can live free from fear and violence, especially in a place where they should ordinarily be secure, among families, work colleagues and acquaintances they trust.
“Throughout this symposium, we will hear from stakeholders, experts, advocates and community leaders, who will share their insights and experiences.
Other News
“Together, we will explore the current state of data collection on femicide, identify gaps and discuss how we can enhance our systems to ensure accurate reporting and analysis.
“Our goal is to create a robust framework that not only highlights the severity of the issue but also informs effective advocacy strategies and policy recommendations,
“The Nigeria Police Force, as currently headed by the IGP Kayode Egbetokun, recognizes its critical role in addressing this issue and, therefore, approved this gender-focused project that is being executed by the force pathologist’s office.
“As the Force Medical Officer, I am aware of the role of health workers in the Nigeria Police Medical Services (NPMS), especially in the medical and the psychological management of victims and their families through our health facilities, numbering over 160 across the country.
“In Lagos Stats, the NPMS manages three secondary and 10 primary health facilities, one of which is already collaborating with the Office of the First Lady of Lagos State, Centre for Integrated Health Programmes (CLP), Heartland Alliance by Guarantee, Mind Management and AROGI Foundation, to enhance capacity and build a fit-for-purpose sexual assault referral centre here in Ikeja.
“The essence of science and technology, including data collection and analysis, cannot be over-emphasized in general crime prevention and investigation, including cases of femicide, highlighting the importance of this project not only to the police but to other sister security agencies, the legislature, judiciary, stakeholder ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), and the general citizenry to improve our understanding of the issue and also guide our policymaking efforts.” he said.
Statistics by stakeholders showed that a total of 1,019 persons lost their lives during violence between 2O22 and 2024 in Lagos, and out of the number, women and girls were 229.
Inspector- General of Police Kayode Egbetokun warned that the police would not hesitate to prosecute anyone found wanting committing fetricide.
According to officer in charge of State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Panti, Yaba, Lagos, DCP Ahmed Lateef, police investigators have challenges during investigation of homicide cases, as people distort evidence at the crime scene, “Before we arrive the crime scene of homicide, family members or sympathizers would have ignorantly distorted evidence. The greatest challenge is in forensic analysis. The only forensic laboratory in Lagos was burnt down in 2020 by #EndSARS protesters. The development gave the police a bad body blow in analyzing crime scenes.”
The DCP also noted that whenever homicides or other murder cases are being investigated, people have started prosecution on social media, instead of giving the police the opportunity to investigate and come out with the real story behind the deaths.
“The arm-chair story by members of the public, especially bloggers on the social media, is hampering investigations.
“We also have serious challenges with digital forensic services. Let service providers cooperate with the police and give out information about the call logs of victims of murder. With the call logs, the service providers can be of help to the police by giving us the conversation the victims had with their killers.
“Sometimes we arrive late to the crime scene because of problems of traffic, distance and many other factors, but I am happy to announce that we are training people at division level across the state, so that personnel would arrive the scene of murder on time.
“We also have the problem of brain drain as many of our forensic analysts have travelled outside for greener pastures; some have retired from the force, others are sick, while a few of them have died. So we are lacking manpower.
“The few ones we have, need to be trained and retrained to meet international standard of forensic practices. The Department of Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP), should corporate with us. If the DPP advises that we should stop prosecution of a suspect, the police have no right to continue and the families of victims may not understand that we don’t have powers of our own.
“The government should come to our rescue because, to carry out autopsy is expensive. We are not supposed to collect money from victims’ families to carry out autopsy.
“Additionally, members of the public should help us during investigation. We are usually confronted by victims’ families that we should stop investigation because they have settled with the suspects’ families.
“Sometimes, before we arrive the scene of crime, their family members have buried the corpse because of religion or other reasons. If the case is inevitable that we must investigate, we have to exhume the corpse for autopsy.
“My advice to investigators is that they should be smart. There are some murder cases you can never unravel if you are not smart. For instance, there was a case we handled. A Chinese was involved. The victim was murdered, but they staged it to look like electrocution, but we tried all we could to discover that if it was electrocution, the deceased would not remain in the same area as the body would have been thrown off by the electric shock. It is important that as investigators we need to develop ourselves and be several steps ahead of suspects.
“The biggest challenge is that our criminal justice system only takes care of criminals and not the victims. Criminals are punished and sent to jail, but victims are not compensated.”
One of the participants at the event, Juliet, called on parents to train their boy child in a way to appreciate the girl child: “Once a boy realizes that a girl is a weaker being that should be loved and cared for, he won’t hit his wife or girlfriend when he is grown. Again, parents should not beat the weaker person or fight in front of their children because the action would have negative impact on the children. The boys may think it is a good way to treat a wife, while the females may have serious hatred for husbands, seeing men as bullies. That is why some ladies could easily pick up knives to stab a man when he tried to bully her. Why I said weaker person is because some women also bully or beat up their husbands. To experience peace in marriage, it has to start from upbringing. Train your children to love and not to hate.”
