Nigeria reaffirms commitment to address Sexual and Gender based violence

Nigeria’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami has reiterated government’s commitment to addressing Sexual and Gender based Violence, SGBV and protecting the victims.

The AGF also harped on the need to train more judges in the country to handle SGBV, need to protect evidences and its management.

He stated these at a program tagged; 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence/ Mock Sexual and Gender based Violence Court held in Abuja, Nigeria’s Capital.

Represented by Mr. Abdulrahim Shuaibu at the event. Mr. Malami said, “after the establishment of 31SARCs, there have been free immediate emergency medical treatment, counselling and follow-up support to survivors of rape and social assault, including support for their engagement with the legal system,”

Meanwhile, a Professor of Law and former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Trafficking, Professor, Joy Ngozi Ezilo at the event noted that about 30 million women and girls may have fallen victims of Gender Based Violence, SGBV in Nigeria.

According to her, “Unless new innovations are brought into laws, it might be difficult to fight the scourge, expressing worries that drug influence and spate of insecurity has risen the menace in the country”.

A mock court trial was organised by the Ministry of Justice, Federal Capital Territory High Court in collaboration with the European Union (EU) through the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption (RoLAC) program.

“Sometimes, while some of these thing goes on, there are low accountability or prosecution, just as little technical can make a viable case not to lead to conviction.

“Sad enough, the ratio of the number of such incidence is as much as 30 million of our population if daily reports and research is anything to go by. She added.

Professor Ezilo said that the events was organised to demonstrate the reality with regards to criminal justice system when it comes to victims and survival of SGBV in search of judgement.

Dominica Nwabufo