Akwa Ibom State says it is ready to deal decisively with the issues of Gender Based Violence (GBV) as it gets set to mark this year’s 16 days of activism beginning November 25.
It stated that with a coalition involving community leaders, Non Governmental Organisations and stakeholders as well as journalists raised to be involved in advocacy and awareness campaigns, the state was not leaving any stone unturned in its bid to reduce cases of GBV.
The Secretary of the GBV management committee, Barrister Emem Ette made this known while addressing the media ahead of the 16 days of activism adding cases of GBV which she said have been on the increase included spousal battery, forceful ejection, children abandonment and harmful widowhood practices and forceful ejection.
She said cases of rape have however witnessed a drop, attributing it to increased advocacy while human trafficking cases have increased of recent.
According to her, out of 422 cases of GBV reported in the state this year, only 95 cases of rape were recorded this year while 134 cases of inflicting physical injury/physical assault were recorded during the same.
Similarly, she said 1324 cases of GBV were reported in the state between 2020 and this year.
She said the 16 days of activism would be used to draw attention to the growing dangers of GBV with a special appeal to parents to be more vigilant against perpetrators of human trafficking and other forms of violence against girls and boys in the state.
Ette who is a director in the state ministry of Justice , GBV response department attributed the increase in cases of human trafficking to the lure for money, cheap labour, prostitution and human organ harvesting.
Describing human trafficking as the third highest crime in the world, she called for more advocacy and sensitization on its dangers while calling for synergy between government agencies involving in checking the menace
“What has helped a lot is the formation of a coalition involving key stakeholders and we are having GBV coordinators in all the local government areas of the state, ” she said.
According to her, the state government is going all over for the victims by establishing schools, giving them medical attention , shelter and rehabilitation and also providing access to justice to both the victim and perpetrators.
“Violence by any means is wrong, committing any crime against any gender is equally wrong, Both men and women should come together in responding to GBV cases, ” she said.
” Parental negligence, child abandonment, especially negligence are to be brought to the front burner during the period, ” she said
Barr Ette said social welfare officers have been trained in all the local government areas along with law officers to deal with how cases of GBV to be reported to aid prosecution while 10 convictions were achieved in 2023.