Minister expresses concern over sexual violence against women

 Minister of Women Affairs, Hajiya Zainab Maina, has expressed concern over the prevalence rate of sexual violence against women, noting that such violation was the second most prevalent violations against women in Nigeria.
The minister, who expressed the concern at a press conference in Abuja, yesterday, explained that the conclusion was based on a recent statistics on reported cases of gender-based violence gathered from 18 states of the federation.
She said: “An overview data of reported cases in Gender Based Violence generated from 18 states of the federation and covering the six geo-political zones in 2010 revealed that out of 479 reported cases, the results was as follows:
“21.08 percent of sexual violations, 44.25 per cent of physical violations, 18.37 per cent of domestic violence, 18.48 of harmful traditional practices (HTP) and 4.92 per cent of economic violation.
“The statistics show that sexual violence ranks second among all the violation, this definitely is the pattern on the national scale.”
Maina added that rape had taken the top position in recent times and was frequently targeted at female victims of various ages.
She attributed the growing scale of the violation against women to the absence or weakness of the country’s legal framework and mechanisms.
She said it was disheartening that 42 students of the Holy Rosary College, Enugu were allegedl raped at Sagamu by men of the underworld.
Citing the widows aged 60 and above who were raped by youths between the ages of 17 and 25 years, the minister called for urgent legal measures to deal with the menace, which she described as “barbaric, inhuman and unacceptable.”