COVID-19 lockdown worsens sexual violence in Nigeria- British High Commission
The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing yesterday expressed concern over increasing cases of sexual assault in Nigeria without commensurate punishment for perpetrators of such atrocity against human dignity.
Speaking during the presentation of N11.7 million to Partnership For Justice (Mirabel Centre) as part of United Kingdom’s support to sexual assault survivors in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, Laing said a lot of women, girls and boys were silently experiencing one form of gender based violence or the other.
According to her, “the issue of gender based violence in Nigeria has gone up drastically due to lockdown occasioned by COVID-19 pandemic. The fact that victims don’t get justice on time is of great concern, but as part of our commitment towards supporting people who have experienced sexual assault, we are making a donation of N11.7million to Mirabel Centre as a stop gap measure while we continue to work towards supporting the centre to get long term funding.
“Our partnership with Mirabel Centre is in recognition of holistic and high quality medical psychosocial services to survivors of sexual assault and rape. Organizations like Mirabel Centre remain one of the hopes of survivors and we are very glad with the fantastic work they are doing since inception seven years ago”.
She added that the United Kingdom was very passionate about the issue of gender-based violence and would continue to support in the area of legal framework, accountability and assist survivor to rebuild their lives.
Appreciating the donation, Managing Partner, Partnership for Justice/Mirabel Centre, Itoro, Eze-Anaba said, “Since 2013 when we started this centre, on a monthly basis, we are seeing not less than 100 clients. The number of people that come to our centre has grown over the years, due to the confidence they have in us. In the past seven years, we have seen more that 5,700 clients. What that means is that we are providing the kind of support and services that fit the need of the survivors”.