Govt Charged On Domestic Violence

Stakeholders have called on the Lagos State government to put in place a policy that will address domestic violence in the  curriculum of public schools in Lagos State.

The stakeholders made this  known at a seminar organised by the Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA) in collaboration with United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) to sensitize legislators and chairmen of Local Government on the law on domestic violence in Lagos, southwest Nigeria.

Deputy Director, Office of the Public Defender, Mrs. Yinka Adeyemi, in her lecture, said the government was concerned about the rising cases of domestic violence in the state, while listing the forms of violence to include physical battering, female genital mutilation, early/forced marriage, widow’s rites and inheritance, sexual violence, forced prostitution and honour killing.

According to her, there was need to monitor the activities in their various localities and report to the authorities.

Vice Chairman of Ojodu Local Council Development Authority, LCDA, Abiodun Ayileka, said it was necessary for the government to begin to look in the direction of including domestic violence in the school curriculum as it would help teach the children moral principles that will make them stay away from violent behavior.

— Kazeem Ugbodaga