WACOL Handled 450 Cases On Violence Against Women, Girls, Between January – June 2022, Says Organization

Posted by Ignatius Okpara Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria, News From The State Thursday, July 14th, 2022

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Foremost Non- governmental organization NGO, WomenAid Collective (WACOL)/Tamar SARC, says it has received and handled a total of 450 cases of violence against women and girls, between the period of January, and June 2022.

It disclosed that the nature of the cases reported includes Rape/defilement/incest, Domestic violence, child custody/neglect and maintenance.
Others are, denial of inheritance; harmful widowhood practices, and malicious damage to properties, forceful ejections, Abandonment of spouses and Early/forced marriage.

This was contained in a recent bi-annual report released by the legal clinic of the Profesor Joy Ezilo, led NGO, which was made available to African Examiner Thursday in Enugu.

According to the document, cases involving adult victims accounted for 433 while, 17 victims are minors.

Similarly, cases reported by female clients amounts to 431 (representing 96%) female, while the remaining 19 incidents (representing 4%) were reported by male clients.

The reports revealed that in terms of disaggregation by age; ages between 25 to 34 featured 171 cases, followed by ages 35 to 44 with 151 cases, while 45 to 49 has 54 cases.

Also, ages 18 to 24 have 33 instances, while those above 60years were the lowest at 18 cases, while about six (6) incidents has no specific age bracket.

“In terms of state-by-state data representation, the highest population emanated from Enugu State, Anambra State came second, followed by Ebonyi, Imo, and Abia states respectively.

” We equally received reports from across the state of the federation, accordingly, most female clients suffered cases relating to domestic violence, rape, defilement, incest; physical, and emotional abuses; custody, and maintenance; denial of inheritance.

Others includes, harmful widowhood practices; malicious damage to property; forceful ejection, and abandonment of spouse; as well as early /forced marriage.

It stated that “Apart from the female, the clinic also recorded a significant number of complaints from male victims who lodged complaints of mostly, emotional/physical abuse, and custody battle against their spouse in the period under review.

“As it is customary in WACOL, our team of legal experts , and counselors leveraged on the Organization’s mechanisms of alternative dispute resolution to resolve majority of the civil matters leading to the settlement, and reconciliation of spouses, and families in dispute.

” However few cases which failed at the arbitration, were charged to court. Importantly, all criminal matters were referred to the police for arrests and prosecution.

“To further facilitate the process of prosecution of the cases, WACOL had written about 181 petitions to the Nigerian Police Force, (NPF), and other relevant agencies requesting prompt prosecution of the reported incidents.

“It is gratifying to note that over 194 persons received Legal Aid services, 38 clients accessed psycho-social support, and three(3) persons received medical care within the period through WACOL’s interventions.

“The Women’s Aid Collective (WACOL) is a not-for-profit civil society organization, registered in Nigeria and operating across West Africa and globally.

” Our work in the past 25 years has gained a local to global reputation as consistent advocates for the protection and promotion of the rights of persons especially, women and young people.

“The organization also works in the area of social reforms, policy formulation, and lobbying for the implementation of laws that promotes the rights of women and gender equality.

“WACOL is considered the number one legal aid service provider for women and girls in Nigeria assisting about 2,000 on an annual basis with over 4,000 drop-ins yearly.

” We register an average of 20 cases daily at our legal clinic, this is evidence-based and well documented.
From 1998 to date approximately 62,000 women and girls have accessed free legal aid and assistance services. We provide free legal services for women and young people in our offices across the country

“While we do our utmost best to provide succor, voice, and hope for victims/survivors of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), in the society, we also seek effective implementation of existing laws, and policies that seeks to, prevent, and mitigating VAWG, and punishment perpetrators.

“We therefore, solicit the support of relevant stakeholders to achieve this tough but, important task through prompt/effective reporting of incidents, prosecution, and incarceration of offenders to serve as deterrent to others.