Some civil society organisations (CSOs) in Edo state, southern Nigeria, have lamented that most victims of rape and defilement do not get justice due to out-of-court settlement as well as slow dispensation of justice.

According to the CSOs, perpetrators of SGBV never get punished for their acts due to out-of-court settlements.

Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting organised by the Global Women for Quality and Sustainable Development (GWSD), the CSOs called for stiffer measures to reduce cases of the menace.

‘There is a lot of reporting of SGBV cases which goes to show that we are gradually breaking the culture of silence and creating awareness’, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted the Executive Director of GWSD, Mariam Kadiri-Ezolome, as saying

‘But we have a lot of cases that do not go beyond the police station and this is a big challenge in mitigation of GBV.

‘The cases of child defilement, and rape is on the increase despite the level of work NGOs and CSOs are doing.

‘We need more synergy between stakeholders to ensure that we mitigate this menace’.

Also speaking, the Coordinator of Child Protection Network, Stella Ojemen, said, ‘It is regrettable that most victims of rape and defilement do not get justice due to out-of-court settlement as well as slow dispensation of justice.

‘SGBV is a criminal matter and the issue of out-of-court settlement should not come to play’.

Available figures indicate that GBV in Nigeria has been on a steady increase despite the passage of the VAPP Act in 2015.

Africa’s most populous nation has the third highest rate of SGBV in the world, with data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) showing that at least 30 percent of women and girls between the ages of 15 and 49 have experienced one or multiple forms of sexual abuse.

Photo source: FrontPage Africa