The Ogun State Government has revealed that it has empowered 200 girls in public secondary schools with teargas canisters to help them fight against sexual assaulters.

The Director of Women Empowerment Services, Ministry of Women Affairs, Wonuola Kazeem, disclosed this during a close out/accountability meeting on strengthening access to community-based psychosocial support for survivors of violence against women and girls.

She spoke at the programme organised by the Centre For Women Health and Information held in Abeokuta, the state capital.

The Director of Administration of CEWHIN, Atinuke Odukoya had earlier reported that a research was carried out in three states in the south West; Ogun, Oyo and Osun which revealed that incest is rampant in Osun, use of diabolical means among pupils for sex is rampant in Ogun state while domestic violence is rampant among the people of Oyo state.

Odukoya said a project was carried out in the three states with a focus on women and girls which later exposed the extent of gender-based violence in the three selected states.

She lamented that in Ogun state, the issue of gender- based violence within the school setting; especially the use of diabolical means by secondary school students to obtain sex from either colleagues or teachers is alarming.

Odukoya said about 100 schools in the three states were selected for the projects and information about gender-based violence in the states were extracted.

She said the results that came out from the three states showed that many girls and children were going through a lot of gender-based violence.

She said “In Osun, the challenge faced the most was incest, “in Ogun, it was the issue of sexual violence among school children using diabolical means and then in Oyo, it was more of domestic violence and incest.”

Reacting to the report, director of women empowerment services in the ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development said the state government had taken serious steps towards reducing the rate of the menace.

Kazeem disclosed that 200 female students have been given the teargas canister as protection against rapists.

She added that the state government has also visited 90 schools to empower the students and sensitize them

She said “We’ve been to 90 schools out of all the schools in Ogun state, to empower them on gender based violence and to reduce both harassment and bully in schools.

“Government is making efforts to reduce this gender based violence in schools, and during our sensitization in school, we’ve equally educated them and empowered even the girls.

“In higher institutions now, we have empowered girls with (teargas) canisters that they can use to defend themselves because the occurrence of gender-based violence can’t continue in the state, so we have empowered them with canisters.” (The PUNCH)

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