Speakers in North-East to Fast-Track Passage of VAAP Bill

Speakers of Houses of Assembly in the North-East have resolved to fast-track the passage of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Bills in the states within the region.
The speakers expressed their commitment to enacting the law on Monday in Gombe, during a roundtable meeting of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) with north-east lawmakers on the proposed bill.
The meeting was funded by the African Women Development Fund (AWDF) and facilitated by the Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC).
The speaker Bauchi State House of Assembly and Chairman of the North-East Conference of Speakers, Abubakar Sulieman, described gender-based violence as not only human rights violation, but a threat to life and public health and added it is the responsibility of legislators to make laws that would benefit the people.
“Research has shown that women and girls are exposed to high level of sexual violence, rape, defilement, domestic violence, transactional sex, sexual exploitation and abuse with little if any opportunity to seek justice. In Nigeria, our value system is changing and the inequality in the society manifests itself in prevalence of violence against women and girls. Due to the weakened social structures, laws and policies against violence and against women and girls are either absent or where available, implementation is weak”.
The chairman added that prevalence of violence against women and girls had made it expedient to use the constitution to protect people from rapists and paedophiles in society.
“Our determination to support a society free from violence is therefore part of our call to duty and sitting here today, our mission is to answer this call”.
In her remarks, the WARDC Executive Director, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, said the bill, when passed in all the states in the region, would address the many challenges that women and girls face adding that the level of violence experienced by women and girls did not commensurate with what was known in public domain as a result of poor reportage of such cases.
“Alarmingly, as at 2020, the incidences of rape and sexual assault do not seem to be subsiding. Recent data from the Inspector General of Police showed that over 700 cases of rape was treated and convicted. One reason for poor reportage is the stigma and shame associated with being a victim of rape. Most women and girls prefer to conceal rape cases to save themselves from shame and public embarrassment”.
She states that in the last two months, Nigeria had witnessed so much violence leading to protests across the country despite the lockdown for government to act.
“I believe this is the best time for distinguished speakers to act and support the passage of the VAPP bills. Our gathering today has this aim and I sincerely wish we will move it forward from here”.
Speakers from Adamawa, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe all gave the assurance that efforts were already being made in their respective states to ensure the passage of the proposed bill.
For now, it is only the Bauchi state house of assembly that has passed the bill in the region.
Highlights of the event were presentation of papers by resource persons as well as question and answer session all aimed at fine-tuning the leglislative processes for the speedy passage of the bill.