The Lagos State Government has urged officials of the Nigeria Police Force to not trivialise cases of sexual and domestic violence against women and girls reported at their stations.
The state Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Mrs Cecilia Dada, made the plea on Thursday during a media parley organised by the ministry in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund in Alausa, Ikeja, to commemorate 16 days of activism to end violence against women and girls.
Dada said, “I implore Nigeria Police Force to help encourage our women and girls to report all forms of violence at the police station. The police station should be a place of respite and succour for any victim of violence and our law enforcement officers should not trivialise these cases or throw them away out of disbelief.
“Recently, the ministry in a bid to stop incessant abuses in our tertiary institutions collaborated with the United Nations Population Fund to work on domestication of Sexual Harassment Policy in all Lagos State tertiary institutions, which will be launched the next year 2023 by God’s grace.”
On her part, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mrs Oluyemi Kalesanwo, disclosed that the16 days of activism against gender-based violence is an annual international campaign that kicks off on the 25th day of November, adding that the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women would run until December 10.
