By FLORENCE ONUEGBU

The Lagos State Government, through its Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA), says it received a total of 5,624 Sexual Gender Based Violence (SGBV) cases in one year.

Ms Titilayo Shitta-Bey, the Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Justice, made this known on Thursday in Ikeja, at the media briefing to commemorate the Domestic and Sexual Violence Awareness Month, being the month of September.

Shitta-Bey, who was represented by the Executive Secretary, DSVA, Mrs Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi, said that from Aug. 1, 2022 to July 2023, the agency received the 5,624 cases via the Virtual Referral and Response Service (VRRS) and Physical report.

She said that the agency now received an average of 250 clients on a monthly basis.

According to her, for cases concerning adults, 91 per cent of survivors are female and nine per cent are male, whilst for children, 45 per cent of survivors are boys and 55 per cent are girls.

She also said that of the 5,624 violence cases, 2,331 reports were domestic violence, 90 were rape issues; 72 were sexual assault; one case was an attempt to commit rape; two were sexual assault by penetration, and 123 of the cases concerned threat to life.

The permanent secretary said that there were 609 cases of separation, failure to take responsibility of child(ren), neglect, child abduction, child labour, custody; 384 cases of non-Gender Based Violence (GBV) – which were tenancy disputes, assault simplicita, among others.

She said that, of the 5,624 cases recorded, 143 were of child abuse/physical assault; 235 were defilement cases, three were of defilement/molestation by minor to minor; while 33 cases were sexual harassment/molestation.

“A total of 1,598 children have experienced emotional abuse (that is, these children have been exposed to domestic violence within the home).

“Forty per cent of these children have been taken through counselling programmes, to ensure they are able to psychologically deal with the events they have witnessed, without it having a permanent and negative impact on them.

“We have also witnessed an increase in reporting of cases from other states; mostly from the South West and South East regions. In the past 11 months, a total of 248 cases were reported outside Lagos. Such cases are promptly referred to the relevant agencies in their respective states.

“The Office of the Public Defender, as well as the Lagos Public Interest Law Partnership (LPILP) have provided free legal representation to 79 survivors of domestic violence; judicial separation; divorce; maintenance; custody of children and settlement.

“All the survivors of sexual assault received medical attention from Comprehensive Primary Health Care Centres, General Hospitals and Sexual Assault Referral Centres including Mirabel Centre, Women at Risk International Foundation (WARIF) as well as Idera Centre,” Shitta-Bey said.

She said that in the period under review, the agency had provided services to seven Persons with Disabilities, who were experiencing one form of GBV or the other.

The Solicitor-General said that the youngest child that experienced sexual violence was an 18 months old baby, while the oldest client that experienced domestic violence was a 79-year-old woman.

She said that the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency was established to guarantee and protect the rights of survivors of domestic and sexual violence, and ultimately, reduce the menace to the barest minimum in the state. (NAN)

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