ANAPTIP warns against tampering with evidence
Chairman of Gwagwalada Area Council, Abubakar Giri, has decried the growing cases of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), within the council.He expressed the worry at a Community Advocacy Dialogue on SGBV organised by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), and funded by the Ford Foundation, yesterday, in Abuja.
Represented by his Special Assistant on Education, Yakubu Muhammed, the chairman said: “We are fortunate to have this programme here because one of the problems we have in our society today is SGBV which has become a phenomenon in our society. It is a major concern in this area council. So, this advocacy is a very welcome development.
“We are ready to always partner with NAPTIP to create the much-needed awareness and advocacy to reduce this problem. We will work to see how we can eradicate or end this. The advocacy is a great tool of enlightenment for the council.”
While advising the public to always preserve evidence of SGBV as it is critical in prosecution, Director General, NAPTIP’s Director-General, Prof. Fatima Waziri-Azi, stressed that it is a serious crime to tamper with evidence.
She also encouraged men to report to the agency whenever they face spousal abuse, stating: “Even men suffer abuse, and there is no shame in reporting when a man suffers abuse because the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act (VAPPA) guarantees protection for both men and women.
“Close to two years ago, we began to see a shift where we started getting reportage (complaints) from men. In the past it never used to happen like that,” she explained.
Waziri-Azi revealed that out of the 148 SGBV cases 1,278 complaints received last year from Federal Capital Territory (FCT) residents, “143 were reported directly to our protection officers in the various area councils and for Gwagwalada area council, 18 cases were reported directly to our protection officers and the highest number of complaints was spousal battery, followed by forced child labour.”
