BY ANKELI EMMANUEL, Sokoto –
Sokoto State Chairman of Gender Based Violence Response Team (GBV-RT) Rabiu Bello Gandi has decried that unnecessary delay in dispensing cases of Gender Based Violence, (GBV) Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) and Harmful Practices (HP) is an obstacle to achieving the needed milestone in halting the trend.
Alhaji Gandi, who admitted that though Sokoto enjoys strong support in the fight against GBV from both the traditional and the religious leaders as well as the state government especially in the areas of prioritizing girl child education, signing the child protection law and violence against persons prohibition, however added that, more needed to be done in getting justice for survivors.
He made the call at a one day online Inter-State Hybrid Multi-Sectorial Cross Learning Meeting for Sokoto and Ebonyi states, at the office of Helping Hands Initiative in Sokoto.
The one day meeting supported by the USAID through Momentum Country and Global Leadership (MCGL) was aimed at discussing achievements, challenges and mitigation efforts by Taskforce Teams of each of the two states.
The chairman noted that the Sultan of Sokoto and President General, Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar 111 has showed his support for the fight against GBV by vowing to ensure that the Sultanate Council punish any traditional leader trying to frustrate prosecution of perpetrators,
Rabiu also appealed for a special court to try perpetrators and bring them to book.
He noted that Sokoto has so far recorded over 300 cases of GBV from January to August, 2022.
On his part, the Director and Programme Officer of MCGL, Mr. Adamu Umar Maiakwai said participants should be free to cross fertilize ideas.
He also appealed that, such learnings from across states having GBV Taskforce should be frequent.
Other issues discussed in the one day visual meeting also included how to proffer solutions towards tackling identified sticky problems, foster collaboration as well as collaborative learning between the two states on GBV multi sectoral response.
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