Only 11 of over 3,000 Sexual, Gender Based Violence prosecuted, says Minister
By Justina Auta
Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs Pauline Tallen on Tuesday in Abuja said only 11 cases out of over 3,000 reported cases of Sexual and Gender based Violence (SGBV) in six states have been prosecuted.
Tallen revealed this at the inauguration of the National Strategic Knowledge Management Technical Working Group on SGBV by the ministry and its partners under the Spotlight Initiative to eliminate violence against women and girls.
The joint EU-UN Spotlight Initiative is being implemented in Adamawa, Cross River, Ebonyi, Lagos, Sokoto and the FCT.
According to her, data from the SGBV situation room revealed that out of over 3,000 reported cases, 107 were fatal, 742 cases were still open, while 188 cases were closed and only 11 had so far been prosecuted.
Speaking on the disparity between reported and convicted cases, the minister expressed displeasure with the slow pace of dispensation of justice for victims of violence in the country.
She, therefore, appealed to the judiciary to be proactive in prosecuting cases of sexual and gender-based violence.
“It is heartbreaking that out of over 3,200 cases that have been reported of Gender Based Violence, only 11 have been prosecuted.
“This is unacceptable and I’m crying with a loud voice, it is unacceptable that our children, our women will be so abused molested and then when cases are reported not much has been done.
“We can no longer accept this; all hands must be on deck, it is not just the Ministry of Women Affairs that is handling this.
“This has exposed the justice system and I believe with the commitment of Mr President and the Attorney General, who is steering the inter-ministerial committee, this matter will not be left unattended,’’ she said.
She said the issue of rape and other gender based violence had reached an alarming rate that could no longer be tolerated, urging the Judiciary to ensure justice for victims to serve as deterrent to others and totally eradicate the menace.
She further said that the technical working group was to further contribute to the National Statistical System to produce reliable, disaggregated and timely SGBV data that respond to gender relations in divest sectors.
Giving an overview of the SGBV data situation room, the Director, Planning Research and Statistics, Mr Micheal Adeniyi-Akee said the cases include rape, physical assault, defilement, emotional and psychological violence, sexual assault, child abuse amongst others.
Adeniyi-Akee, represented by the data manager, Mr Sunday Sanusi-Agbabiaka, explained that there were 742 open cases, while 188 cases were closed by the family members of the victims.
“We have cases that are open and the ones that are close. The ones that they don’t want to cut any cases at all or maybe the committee tried to close up or the family, that we have about 188 of those ones out of the 3,491.
“Then the ones that are open are about 742 , so you can imagine the number of cases that are pending in the court.
“And out of those, it is only 11 convicted cases that are there, which represents 0.46 per cent. There is need for our justice system to be very fast in dealing with this issue of GBV,’’ he said.
The World Bank Representative, Michael Ilesanmi, assured support to the federal government in eliminating problems around women and girls, adding that it is mapping out GBV services across states in order to roll out a GBV referral paltry.
Similarly, UNDP Resident Representative, Mohammed Yahya, represented by Mr Simon Riley, Senior Adviser on the Rule of Law, reiterated their supports towards harmonising SGBV data for programming and decision making.
Also, the Director-General, National Centre for Women Development (NCWD) Dr Asabe Vilita-Bashir,stressed the need to eliminate all forms of violence and harmful practices against women and girls in the country. (NAN)
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