By Ismail Auwal
From September to December, the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) reported a 67 percent decrease in reported cases of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in Kano State.
CITAD revealed at a press conference that the findings and analysis of their findings on GBV in the state were part of a project titled “Strengthening Citizens Response and Protection Against Gender Based Violence in Kano, Nigeria.”
The Ford Foundation-funded project aimed to contribute to the reduction of GBV in society and to promote the well-being of women and girls.
According to Zainab Aminu, the Gender Project Program Officer, the initiative’s goal is to raise public awareness of the threat and encourage all stakeholders to take action to address it.
“Data collected shows that GBV is been perpetrated against both male and female gender with a higher number of female victims within all age ranges in both rural, urban and suburban communities with prevalence in Urban communities.
“The cases highly reported is sexual harassment.The perpetrators are mostly male.
“It was also observed that the perpetrators of rape have no relation to the victims while for other types of GBV reported, the perpetrators are either family members, teachers/lecturers, student peers, or even those that have no relation to the victims.”
“Although there is a visible decline in reported cases of all forms of GBV, we still observe perpetration of GBV within the state. Furthermore, Sexual Harassment still remains the case with the highest number of perpetrations,”she said.
This shows that there is still a need for Gender Based Violence (GBV) actions to be taken in the state in order to eliminate/curb GBV.
“We recommend that the previous call to the Kano State Government and House of Assembly to domesticate the Child Rights Act and VAPP Act at the state level if implemented will contribute in curbing this menace”.