Adamawa records 774 cases of sexual and GBV, convicts 297

Adamawa registered 774 cases of sexual and gender-based violence between 2020 and the first half of 2021.

Two hundred and ninety-seven of the perpetrators have been condemned to date.

These were revealed in Yola on Monday by Dr Ukohi Ukiwo, Technical Officer of the Conflict Management Program in Nigeria (MCN) at the opening of a five-day capacity building workshop.

Workshop participants are doctors, nurses, and sexual and gender-based violence management counselors.

The event was organized by the Adamawa State Primary Health Care Development Agency in collaboration with the MCN and funded by the British Council through the European Union.

Ukiwo said part of the reasons for introducing the workshop was to educate participants on how to identify and provide emergency treatment to victims.

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“Sexual and gender-based violence occurs more in communities due to the lack of care and the silence that followed the incidents.

“We hope that by training primary health workers closer to the population, survivors will be able to benefit from emergency care and first aid.

“Through emergency treatment, first-hand evidence will be gathered to enable authorities to prosecute the culprits,” he said.

Ukiwo stated that by bringing training closer to communities would help collect and manage early evidence.

He stressed that the solution to eradicating the threat was to prosecute the perpetrators in order to deter others.

“The reason why the cases of violence persist is that most of the perpetrators are released,” he said.

In his remarks, Dr Bashir Sulaiman, executive chairman of the Adamawa State Primary Health Care Development Agency, said the agency is responding positively to sexual and gender-based violence in the state.

Sulaiman added that the main objective of the training was to educate and empower participants on how to easily detect suspects and victims of sexual and gender-based violence.

“Our staff are available and well trained and have tools to advise and guide in the three sexual assault referral centers in the state.

“Where there is a need for justice, we do it through various partners,” Sulaiman said.

Around 50 participants from 21 local government areas in the state are attending the training.

NAN