Lagos State government has engaged over forty police officers on how to address headlong issues of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in their respective stations.
The participants at the training session are officers in the family support units as well as other formations including force Criminal Investigative Department CID Alagbon and Panti who involved in investigation and prosecution of sexual and Gender-Based Violence cases.
At a 3-day training held at the LCCI, Ikeja, the Executive Secretary Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency, DSVA, Mrs Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi said that the whole essence is to acclimatise them with emerging trends on sexual violence and know how to relate with them when the needs arise.
Vivour-Adeniyi explained that police has indispensable role to play at ensuring perpetrators are held accountable and justice served and consistent capacity building would help them to discharge their duties professionally and with objectivity.
She emphasised the need for the continuous training and retraining so that all those in the responders’ chain will be on the same page while responding to issues.
“The truth of the matter is that cases are not won in court, they are won at investigation stages and so we need them to the needful when these survivors are there to break the culture of silence and report cases of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.”
“Police are usually first responders when cases of Sexual Based violence come up and that is why we are building their capacity in ensuring that they are able to conduct thorough investigation when these cases are reported to their stations because, it is a process of securing conviction.
“They must know the best practices for interviewing survivors and the intricacies involved and the investigation techniques in facing the alleged perpetrators at the scenes of the crime, connecting the suspect to crime.” she said
Vivour-Adeniyi added that everyone in the responders’ chain has a role to play and that called for training for the police, health workers, lawyers, NGOs among others.
She maintained that the state is working assiduously to ensure that going forward there are solid investigations conducted by these personnel as the state is craving for an increase in conviction and increase faith in the system.
“Sexual and Gender-Based Violence is a globally pervasive human rights violation.
Research reveals that one out of three women worldwide and one in ten men will experience physical or sexual violence in the hands of their family and Lagos State government under Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has declared zero tolerance on all forms of sexual and Gender-Based Violence and efforts are geared towards ensuring every stakeholders are equipped with knowledge and understanding on how to cope with situations when they arise.”
Societal norms
One of the resource persons at the training, Mrs Atinuke Odukoya of the Centre for Women’s Health and Information took the participants on the issues of socialization, culture, social norms, value system and how they impact on how the police officers within the family support units respond to issues of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.
She said, “We all know that things that we have behind our minds are in terms of how we have been raised or how our society has raised our expectations and attitudes with behaviours and how we are supposed to respond to issues, those impacts affect the way we respond to cases that survivors bring to the station when they come.
“One of the things that we needed them to see is the fact that these people that you are responding to, they are coming with a lot of trauma. So it’s not in your place to determine because of how you feel or how you think or what you think is the way they should be dressed or the way they should talk on how they should be able to respond to cases.”
Odukoya enjoined the officers to look beyond ethnic coloration while making judgment and to see that objectivity is key and investigating the cases with all objectivity towards ensuring that justice is served “because justice is a form of prevention.”
Relevant laws
In his presentation, Director of Public Prosecutions Lagos state, Dr Babajide Martins highlighted the relevant laws in relation to their area investigation and put in perspective what is expected of them in terms of implementation, investigation and apprehension of offenders and preparing them to give good testimonies when they are invited in court by directorate.
He said some of the challenges are the process of getting officers to come and give good testimonies in court, stressing that the training session will avail them the opportunity to know what their roles are and what is expected of them when they are coming to give evidence in court.
Some of the participants appreciated the state government particularly DSVA for putting the training together as they called for more sensitisation at community levels as well as reaching out to religious and traditional rulers to cascade the messages to the people.
Dominica Nwabufo
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