From Yakubu Busari, Jos
Governor Simon Bako Lalong of Plataeu State has said that the state would take the lead in signing the bill into law prohibiting violence against women, girls to curtail domestic violence and rape.
The governor who was represented by Hon. Irimiya Worr, the Commissioner for Special Duties in the presence of Royal Fathers and other dignitaries at the occasion in Jos, the state capital, called on the people of the state, especially the women, to take advantage of all the laws concerning violence passed and assented to by his administration and report incidence of domestic violence and rape.
The Plateau State Women Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative, WRAPA Programme Officer, Ruth Abwo, explained that the importance of this gathering today, Monday, was to encourage the women to speak out which as a form of sensitization and awareness campaign how to tackle domestic violence against women, girls and boys.
According to her, “We are partnering with our traditional institutions and the appropriate authority to stamp out violence extremes through women of resilience project. For quite some time now, we know that so many women have been violated and they have remained quiet.
:The WRAPA Women of Resilience are now their immediate safe space where they can go and interface with those victims so that, the Women of Resilience can now take it up the responsibility of pursuing the case in court.
“In the past, they go directly to the police station, but now, they will just meet these carefully selected women in their communities. You would recall that, WRAPA Violence Against Women and Girls Accountability Project, has been supported by Ford Foundation, as a two-year project, implemented to challenge norms that infringe on the rights of women and girls and build the capacity of faith and cultural leaders to demand accountability from perpetrators of VAWG.
Speaking further, she said. “We hate any form of violence against anybody, especially, on women and the girl child hence, we passed those Laws. We want our homes to be free of violence as this will further bring peace to the state”.
In order to move from rhetoric to action, WRAPA has formally launched WRAPA Women Resilience Platform in Plateau State, to help scale up the visibility of commitments from faith and culture Leaders in the fight against, Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) in the state.
The launching took place today, at the Palace of the Adagwom Kabong-Kazumung in Rukuba road in Jos.
“The movement is established to identify and respond to VAWG case reports in their communities by scaling up reported cases to duty bearers, using the response protocol co-created by the community stakeholders and the project monitoring and documentation of VAWG incident reports and interventions in communities, based on commitments made by Faith and Culture leaders.
“The body will visit families and have convening that increase awareness, strengthen trust and provide access to survivals, who may not be opportune to seek and obtain formal adjudication”.
