Commission begins sensitisation against gender violence, rape in Ilorin
The National Human Rights Commission has commenced a 16-day sensitisation programme against gender violence, rape, forceful marriage and other forms of assaults against humanity.
The programme was in commemoration of the National Rights Day.
The Commission’s Assistant Chief Investigation Officer, Mrs Okikiola Olawumi, during a press briefing in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, revealed that the sensitisation is coming on the heels of several complaints the commission has received within the year.
Olawumi said the commission has received over 252 cases in the year bordering on rape, gender based violence, forceful marriage, sexual assault, child trafficking or child labour among others saying the need to find lasting solution to the scourge informed the programme.
She therefore gave several accounts of how victims of gender based violence contacted the commission through phone calls, email to launch complaints concerning their spouse’s maltreatment saying the menace has been on the increase defiling all manners of approaches deployed to curb the trend.
“This commission was established 1995 to bridge the existing gap, seek answers end to the gender base violence in our societies. After receiving the complaints, we invite perpetrators to get their own side of the stories then, we go extra length in pursuing justice. We partner with many agencies just to ensure we do what is right and put members of the societies on a right path,” she stated.
Mrs Omojuola Adewuyi, a representative of a Non Governmental Organisation: Olive Community Development Initiative that partners with the commission however roll out demands that could help sanitise the society of the prevailing sexual assaults and the likes.
Adewuyi, in her appeal said government should empower women, adding that women who are financially buoyant will always see the need to jettison all forms of enticement from men folks that could lead to rape.
She advocated for shelter that could harbour the victims of rape saying an equipped apartment will help their well-being and put them back in normal frame of minds.
Her words, “Government should always make rape case a state case, it shouldn’t be left in the hands of families of the victims. Often times, the family members doesn’t have the will to prosecute case, hence, the case die of natural death and the culprit go free without getting proportionate punishment for the offence committed.
“We should also abolish that culture of silence, it is killing our society, victims should be speaking up. For stigmatisation or for some family reasons, many victims are dying of silence.
“We also also want stiffer penalties as a way of discouraging the perpetrators.”
Some of the victims present at the programme also lend their voices to advocate for government supports over their odeals.
An 18 years old girl with the Olive Community Development Initiative, after narrating how she ran away 20 days to the wedding her parents enforced on her with a man he never knew nor saw said government should sponsor her education.
She said, “I ran away 20 days to the planned marriage with someone I never met before, I found shelter with a monarch, Olojoku of Ojoku, but my father didn’t allow me to enjoy. He came hard on the King, pouring all manners of insults. This made the king to banish me from the land. I eventually became a vagabond, having no place to stay.”
Similarly, another 15 years old girl, in an emotional laden voice, complaint of how her father, who married three wives, care less about her life and that of her siblings.
She appealed assistant of the government and the well meaning Nigerians to come to her aide in becoming a better being in life.
