By Justina Auta
The Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC) Women Committee, FCT Command, has called on Nigerians to partner with the Police to curb insecurity and Gender Based Violence (GBV).
The committee specifically urged the general public to always share necessary information that would enable police address such security challenges.
The committee made the appeal at a one-day summit on Gender Based Violence and other crimes organised by the Women Committee of the PCRC, FCT command, in Abuja on Tuesday.
Mrs Ruth Bature, the FCT Coordinator PCRC, said the summit was to educate women and youths on the triggers of GBV and ways to address them as preventive measures.
“The economy of the country is not too good, the insecurity is there making people to be depressed and because they are depressed, they like to take drugs.
“And again, youths are unemployed, so going by all these we feel that as mothers we need to talk to the youths so that we can try and reduce gender-based violence,” she said.
Princess Nana Dahiru, the National Coordinator, PCRC Women Committee, explained that men were also victims of GBV perpetrated by some women, which called for the need to educate women against any form of violence.
“If you go close to these men and see the amount of violence they receive from their wives, especially sexual violence, you will be surprised.
“When you deny a man food, deny him your body, you deny him respect from his children, you deny him respect as the head of the family, have you not beaten him?
“At times, some of you provoke a man to violence, if we don’t start teaching women about these, they will be victims of such violence and might loose their lives,” she said.
On her part, Mariam Ciroma, former Minister of Women Affairs, stressed the need to address the increasing rate of drug and substance abuse amongst women and youths.
Ciroma attributed the use of drug abuse as some of the factors that contribute to Sexual and Gender Based Violence in the country.
According to her, women are the custodians of the family unit that groom children to be future leaders of tomorrow, hence the need for them to set good examples for the children to emulate.
“Drug issues are very common among women not only men and this is a very serious issue.
“We have to look at how to improve on the situation of drug abuse not only violence against women but violence against men because ladies that take drugs can also be violent,” she said.
Similarly, Mr Bolaji Adigun, the Chairman, FCT command of the PCRC, advised parents to be proactive in their responsibilities of instilling good traditional morals in their children to develop their self-respect and integrity.
