Women
AN NGO, Sexual Offences Awareness and Response Initiative (SOAR),
has called for punitive measures to address the tide of sexual violence against the girl-child and women in the country.
The Project Officer of the initiative, Mrs Bunmi Okesola, made the call in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
on the sidelines of a consultative meeting in Abuja on Tuesday.
Okesola said that the meeting was to brainstorm on ways of preventing “Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG)”,
“Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) and “Harmful Practices (HP).”
She reiterated the need for government at all levels to ensure implementation of laws protecting the girl-child and women,
as well as end the tradition of silence after molestation.
She said “the problem of Nigeria is not in making laws but in implementing them. If government should at least sentence
a perpetrator of sexual violence against the girl-child to life imprisonment, others will desist.”
Mrs Hauwa Abdu Msheliza, the Principal of JSS Kubwa in the FCT, said it was time to unleash the wrath of the law against
perpetrators of violence against the girl-child and women.
Msheliza explained that two years imprisonment was not enough to curtail the increasing rate of molestation against the girl-child.
According to her, some of the victims are house helps who are very vulnerable, as such, they cannot raise alarm on their molestation.
Hajiya Hajara Musa, the Head Teacher, LEA Primary School, Gwagwa in FCT, condemned the act of sexual violence against the girl-child
and women, saying stiffer punishment should reduce the act to a minimal level.
NAN
Oct 22, 2019 @ 15:30 GMT |
Tags: Group advocates stiffer punishment for violence against girl-child
