Community Leaders In Nasarawa Commit To Act Against Gender-Based Violence
Leaders from various communities in Nasarawa State have committed themselves to taking action against gender-based violence.
The community leaders who were drawn from religious and traditional institutions in all the 13 Local Government Areas of Nasarawa State, were part of a workshop organized by the Nasarawa State Ministry of Health under the Nigeria COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Project (CoPREP).
The facilitators at the workshop covered topics that exposed the participants to the realities of sexual exploitation and abuse as well as sexual harassment going on in homes in the State and agreed that it was a menace that needed to be stopped.
While making her presentation at the workshop, the Gender Pillar Head of CoPREP in the State, Esther Yonah, said although Nasarawa State did not have a significant number of cases of female genital mutilation, there were still other cases of gender-based violence which is worrisome. This according to her, was why such sensitization workshops were necessary.
“There have been a lot of issues concerning Gender-based Violence, sexual exploitation and sexual harassment, that was why the World Bank supported Nasarawa State through the Center for Disease Control to implement this project in the State.
“Sometime in February, we were able to call stakeholders here (Lafia) to develop the State’s action plan to ensure that the people are safe in their workplaces, schools and communities.”
“So today, we had to step down this action plan to the stakeholders at the community level. Now that they have been trained, they will have to develop their comprehensive plans in their various communities to tackle issues relating to gender-based violence and other matters affecting the girl child,” she added.
On her part, the Director, Public Defender at the Nasarawa State Ministry of Justice, Justina Allu, decried the issue of indecent dressing amongst young females in society.
Allu called for a behavioural change to address the issues of sexual harassment, and sexual molestation, among others.
She said, “For the students and other young ladies moving around naked, they should know that it is an offence in section 26 of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Law in the state.
“Whoever is seen naked on the street commits an offence and the punishment is one-year imprisonment or a 100,000 fine or both. So all the ladies exposing their bodies should be aware that it is not allowed by the law.”
In their various contributions in the course of the workshop, participants accepted that they have a huge role to play in ending gender-based violence in their various communities.
They assured that the knowledge they had gathered at the workshop will be further stepped down to the grassroots in their various Local Government Areas
