Report Concludes 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence; 28,000 GBV Cases Reported Since 2020
As the 16 days nationwide activism against sexual and gender-based violence ends, no fewer than 28,000 cases of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) have been reported since the launch of the National Data GBV Situation Room and Dashboard in 2020.
The senator representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Ireti Kingibe, made the disclosure at the weekend in Abuja during during an interactive session.
She added that over 9,000 cases have been opened against offenders, even as over 8000 cases are still pending in various courts, while over 1800 cases have been withdrawn either by the courts, communities, families and victims.
Her words: “The number of convictions are 455, and sadly, the number of fatalities from GBV are over 1250.
Kingibe said she has floated an initiative as chairperson of the Senate Committee on Women Affairs to address the menace.
In her remarks, founder of Beeta Arts Festival, Bikiya Douglas Graham, said the event was to tell stories from Africa.
She noted: “Sexual Gender-Based Violence are stories of Africa. The soft power of creativity cannot be undermined when you are able to capture sexual based violence in a film, you are able to connect with people’s minds, and that is why we wanted to have the screening here, 16 days of activism, I am a woman, and I stand strongly against Gender-Based Violence.
So there was this beautiful opportunity for us to connect story-telling with GBV during 16 days of activism.
The Orange Initiative Nigeria, one of their mandates is to have more story-telling on issues of GBV. So, this is the beginning of a very long relationship, where we can take these stories of women and showcase them. We hope that it can shape the minds of people for all of us to stand against GBV in our society.
