News

Opinion: Protecting our girls against sexual violence- By Elisha Attai

Published

7 years ago

July 6, 2019

Editor

By Elisha Attai

Across the world, girls face adversities and abuses that affect their self-esteem, education, training, and entry into the workforce. Abuse in all its forms is a daily reality for many Nigerian children and only a fraction ever receive help.

According to UNICEF, 6 out of every 10 children experience some form of violence – one in four girls have been victims of sexual violence. Of the children who reported violence, fewer than five out of 100 received any form of support.

It is important to understand the ramifications of sexual assault, not only as a physical act but also could be verbal or visual sexual abuse or any act that forces a person to join in unwanted sexual contact or attention. It encompasses a range of acts, including coerced sex in marriage and dating relationships, rape by strangers, sexual harassment (including demands of sex for jobs or school grades), and rape of children, trafficking of women and girls, female genital mutilation, and forced exposure to pornography.

Sexual assault is also not discriminatory to gender; both males and females are affected but studies have shown that the number of female sexual assault victims (and assault perpetrated by males) is far greater than male victims.

Several bodies and agencies have spoken and still speaking against sexual violence.

In March 2017, the United Nation Secretary-General outlined a comprehensive four-pronged strategy to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse across the United Nations system.

The elements of the strategy are to:

(a) Prioritize the rights and dignity of victims.

(b) End impunity through strengthened reporting.and investigations.

(d) Improve strategic communication for education and transparency.

Also, the UNICEF’s child protection program aims to provide preventive and response interventions for children who are victims of, or at risk from violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation through strengthened child protection systems. The program works with key state ministries and other partners, to ensure that identified children facing protection risks receive integrated case management and referral to specialized services.

The program works to implement priority interventions including:

– Strengthened legislative and institutional frameworks to protect children that are vulnerable and exposed to violence, abuse, and exploitation.

– Strengthened capacities of Government and key stakeholders, including social welfare and justice services that prevent and respond to violence against children.

– Supporting the development, coordination, and implementation of an inter-sectoral national social norms change strategy to end violence against children including child marriage, FGM/C and other harmful traditional practices.

– Strengthening the birth registration system to scale up the registration of children under age five years, with a focus on children under one.

– Ensuring children in humanitarian situations have timely and sustained access to quality preventive and responsive child protection services.

The public also plays a significant role by enlightening children on a preventive measure to avoid sexual abuse and by not stigmatizing those who have fallen victims but rather supporting them to overcome the trauma.

At the African Women in Leadership Organisation, we reiterate our commitment against sexual violence in all its forms while assisting victims to overcome the trauma

AWLO WHICH IS IN THE VANGUARD OF DRIVING WOMEN’S SUSTAINABLE EMPOWERMENT AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT IS HEREBY TAKING OUR EMINENT STANCE ON THE NEFARIOUS ISSUE OF RAPE AS FOLLOWSTHE AWLO CONCEPTUAL STANCE ON RAPE INCIDENCE.:

We consider the rising incidence of rape as a slap in the face of the global empowerment struggle for inclusion of women in the Mainstream, and in Leadership and Governance. It is a hate crime much more than a violation of human rights. It negates every concept of gender parity or narrowing the gender gap, and it is a negative statement on the upliftment of women.

The solution should be sought multi-dimensionally, Psychologically, Spiritually, educationally and legislatively.

We in AWLO consider rape as a height of misogyny and a brutish expression of control, domination, subjugation, and torture. It is also a calculated expression by the misogynist to rob a woman of every self-esteem, and vestige of dignity.

We are aware that this evil practice cuts across creed, race, age, and status and that this is a malaise that negates the restraint and morality often preached by religious creeds. We, therefore, regret that rape continues to expose the fact that the gender inequality problem is beyond the social facade. It is in the depth of human psychology and the solution should not only be by legislation, civil rights activist and jurisprudence, but by scientific inquiry necessitating more research and not just imprisonment.

We understand that some rapists appear normal, but they are not because they are often hijacked by their limbic brain short-circuiting reasoning and limited self-control. There is room for psychiatric test for men in sensitive positions and much more a preemptive measure.

This is food for thought for He-for-She movement because most rape cases are perpetrated by men.

Despite the secular nature of governance, we believe that any religious cleric or official in governance caught in proven rape should immediately be considered a dire risk to the peace and security of our society and should be locked away. We need to uphold the value of society against rape and stop the injustice against women.

Join us on the 25th of July as we all convene in support for the HeforShe United Nation Solidarity Movement for Gender Equality.
Theme: A Pledge to Gender Parity

Venue: Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja Lagos.

Time: 9:00am

News

Gunmen Kill Driver, Abduct Passengers on Benin-Ore Expressway

Published

1 week ago

April 20, 2026

Eric

Gunmen suspected to be kidnappers have attacked a commercial bus operated by GUO Transport along the Benn-Ore expressway, killing the driver and abducting several passengers in what underscores Nigeria’s deepening insecurity on major highways.

Reports indicate that the assailants ambushed the South East-bound vehicle, opened fire on the driver, who died at the scene, and subsequently whisked away passengers to an unknown destination.

The incident is believed to have occurred along a notorious stretch of the highway linking the South-West to the South-South, long plagued by banditry and abductions.

While official confirmation from security agencies is expected, local sources and a circulating video showed that passengers might have forcefully been taken into nearby forests, a tactic commonly employed by kidnapping syndicates operating along the corridor. Similar attacks in the past have involved mass abductions, with victims later released after ransom payments.

News

Police Retirees Block Aso Rock Gate, Demand Action on Pension Scheme

Published

1 week ago

April 20, 2026

Eric

Some retirees of the Nigeria Police Force under the aegis of the Police Retired Officers Forum of Nigeria (PROF) have staged a protest at the Presidential Villa in Abuja demanding President Bola Tinubu sign the Police Exit Bill passed by the National Assembly in December 2025.

The bill seeks to withdraw the Nigeria Police Force from the Contributory Pension Scheme.

The protesters, under the scorching sun, walked from the Three Arms Zone in Abuja through the street in front of the Police Headquarters.

They carried placards with various inscriptions, in addition to the Nigerian flag and the flag of the Nigeria Police Force.

Led by its National Coordinator, CSP Raphael Irowainu, the protesters described the retention of the NPF in the Contributory Pension Scheme as fraudulent and illegal.

They also said the CPS is inhumane and obnoxious.

According to them, the protest seeks to prevail on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to give assent to the Police Exit Bill passed by the National Assembly on 4th December 2025 and transmitted to the President on 16th March 2026.

They said that when signed into law, the Act will totally exempt the police from what they called a “slavery and untimely death-inducing pension scheme.”

The protesters, accompanied by some of their spouses and children, also blocked Gate 8 leading into the Presidential Villa, causing obstruction to vehicular movement.

Efforts by Villa security personnel to dissuade them from the protest proved abortive as they insisted on seeing the President.

They laid their mats in front of the gate, singing songs of solidarity, while some of them lay on the floor.

As of the time of filing this report, no one from the Villa had addressed the protesters.

CSP Irowainu said that their main purpose is to prevail on President Tinubu to sign the bill exiting the Nigeria Police Force from the CPS, which he said has been passed and transmitted to him by the National Assembly.

He lamented that while other security agencies in the country such as the Army, Navy, Air Force, SSS and others have all been exited from the scheme, the police remain trapped in it.

“Our major aim here is to prevail on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to sign our bill—the bill exiting the police from the Contributory Pension Scheme—passed by the National Assembly on 4th December 2025 and transmitted to him on 16th March, 2026, into law, nothing more than that.

“The soldiers have been exited, the SSS has been exited, the Air Force has been exited, the Navy has been exited, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has been exited. The police, who are the father of them all, are trapped in this obnoxious Contributory Pension Scheme,” CSP Irowainu said.

It is not the first time retired officers are staging a protest over the CPS. In July last year, they demonstrated at the National Assembly to demand their removal from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

The demonstrators, mostly elderly, stood in the rain holding placards and chanting anti-government songs.

Some of the retired police officers also besieged the Force Headquarters in Abuja to protest against the CPS.

Addressing the protesters at the time, the then Inspector General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, said the welfare of retired police officers was being addressed, but that the exit of the Force from the Contributory Pension Scheme was not something that could be implemented immediately.

He, however, advised the leaders of the protest to refrain from spreading misinformation, stressing that the Force could not abandon its own.

News

IGP Disu Orders Ban on Illegal Checkpoints Nationwide

Published

2 weeks ago

April 13, 2026

Eric

The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Olatunji Disu, has issued a sweeping directive to Commissioners of Police nationwide, ordering an immediate end to extortion, illegal checkpoints, harassment of citizens and other misconducts.

He declared that restoring public confidence in the Nigeria Police Force is now a top operational priority.

The order was contained in a signal to members of the police management team including Commissioners of Police (CP) and other operational commanders.

In the marching order, the IGP acknowledged the deep mistrust many Nigerians feel toward officers, describing it as “painful” and unacceptable.

He said citizens now fear encounters with the police as much as they fear criminals, warning that such a reputation cannot continue under his leadership.

According to him, the directive marks the beginning of a determined effort to rebuild discipline within the police and re-establish its legitimacy in the eyes of the public.

The order specifically outlawed the routine collection of money from motorists on highways, the operation of unauthorised checkpoints, and the practice of arresting citizens and forcing them to withdraw cash from Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) or Point of Sale (PoS) devices.

The IGP also condemned the use of officers for private duties in homes and businesses, describing such deployments as abuse of authority and a violation of existing presidential directives on VIP protection.

Officers were further directed to comply strictly with approved dress codes, remain clean-shaven and adhere to established uniform regulations.

The police boss warned that harassment of citizens in any form would no longer be tolerated, stressing that the Nigerian public is not the enemy of the Force but the reason for its existence. At the same time, he assured officers that the institution would equally defend them against intimidation or disrespect from members of the public, noting that the dignity of the uniform must be protected on both sides.

Holding command leaders directly accountable, the IGP said Commissioners of Police would henceforth be responsible for misconduct within their jurisdictions.

He ordered them to demonstrate measurable improvements in discipline within seven days or face formal queries and possible transfers where lapses persist.

He emphasised that supervisory failure would no longer be ignored at any level of leadership. To ensure compliance, the directive introduced new oversight measures, including independent monitoring of field operations and public reporting channels through which citizens can lodge complaints directly with Force Headquarters.

A Citizens Commendation System will also be established to recognise officers who demonstrate professionalism, with monthly honours to be drawn from public nominations across commands.

Describing the directive as a decisive turning point, the police chief said Nigerians have grown weary of promises and now expect visible change. He ordered all commanders to brief personnel under their authority within 72 hours and confirm compliance in writing, declaring that the process of cleaning up the Force has begun and will be sustained until public trust is restored.