The Emir of Kano, Aminu Ado Bayero, has called on residents to report violence against women to their respective community leaders.
Alhaji Ado Bayero made the plea at a one-day policy dialogue on fighting Sexual and Gender-Based Violence organized to mark the 2023 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence with the theme: Unite! Invest to Prevent Violence against Women & Girls.
The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is an annual international campaign that kicks off on 25 November and runs until 10 December.
The aim is to eliminate violence against women and girls.
A local advocacy group, the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) recorded 800 cases of rape, domestic violence, sexual abuse, and online abuse from January to November 2022.
In 2023, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Kano State recorded 1,505 SGBV complaints between January and October.
“Seventy-five percent of human rights violation cases are domestic violence, human and gender matters, paternity denial, and child rights violations,” said the Kano State Coordinator of the Commission, Shehu Abdullahi.
Speaking at the dialogue on Thursday, Alhaji Ado Bayero, represented by the District Head of Gwale, Alhaji Yahaya Inuwa Abbas, blamed victims’ neighbors for failing to report violence.
Alhaji Abbas, however, stressed that all and sundry must "speak up" to end violence against women and girls.
The Team Lead of the EU Agents for Citizen-Driven Transformation (ACT) 16 Days of Activism, Abba Bello Ahmed, identified “weak enforcement of the law, limited access to support services, shaming, and stigma” as some of the challenges the program wished to address.
Bello, however, recommended the strengthening of existing laws “to halt violence against women and girls” in Kano State.
But the state government, through the Director of Development Support in the Ministry of Planning and Budget, Abdul Ladan, said it was “committed to ending the menace through the passage of the Social Protection Bill.”
Speaking on behalf of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the Secretary of Young Lawyers Forum, Kano State Branch, Barrister Hadiza Nasir Ahmed, urged the Government to establish a special court to try cases relating to domestic violence.
On his part, the State Commissioner of Police, CP Muhammed Usaini Gumel, reiterated the command's commitment to address all sorts of violence against women bedeviling the State.
“All hands are on deck to bring the perpetrators to book,” he said.
