By Magnus Emuji
ASABA/Nigeria: Delta State Government (DTSG) , has reiterated its commitment to deal decisively against perpetrators of child abuse and other domestic violence against children in order to serve as a deterrent to others.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, Mr. Augustine Oghoro stated this while flagging off a sensitisation/awareness campaign on child abuse and other related crimes at the Government Model Secondary School, Asaba organisd the Ministry in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice.
Mr. Oghoro, who was speaking on behalf of the State Commissioner for Secondary Education, Mrs Rose Ezewu and the Commissioner for Primary Education, Chief Sunday Onoriode, said that child abuse and other related crimes had assumed a worrisome dimension.
He stated that there were several cases in connection with abuses in courts of law across the state, adding that the cases ranged from sexual abuses, and molestation to forms of domestic violence against children.
Mr. Oghoro, who said that the theme of the campaign:” See Something, Say Something (Speak Out) ” was apt, noted that at the moment, most of the victims had withdrawn and were unable to speak out on or after the incident.
The PS explained that from available statistics, one out of three girls and one out of five boys had been victims of such abuses before the age of 18, adding that it had resulted in a lack of confidence in themselves and had negative impacts on their academic performance.
Mr. Oghoro stated that the campaign was aimed at disseminating relevant information to school-age children in order to mitigate their exposure to the heinous crime and to show how to provide the necessary information in order to seek redress in the court of law against culprits who according to him may either be their parents, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunties and other relatives and people around their neighbourhood.
Earlier in her talks, the Director of Sexual Offences in the State Ministry of Justice, Mrs. Uche Akamagwuna emphasised that the rate of sexual violence was alarming in recent times, adding that such sexual violence could occur in both home and school.
Mrs. Akamagwuna, who disclosed that there were ten sexual violence cases at the Federal High in the state with some regarding fathers raping their children and other individuals involved in raping and domestic violence, said that the punishment for rape was life Imprisonment.
The Sexual Offences Director advised the children to always report any individual touching or attempting to touch their private parts to the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education and Ministry of Justice and call her GSM number to take up the case.
Mrs. Akamagwuna also identified female genital mutilation as another form of violence against women, and physical violence such as the husbands beating up their wives as domestic violence.
Other schools where the two Ministries took the sensitisation and awareness campaign to included Uzoigwe Primary School, Osadenis Mixed Secondary School and Ogbe-Olie Primary School, Cable point all in Asaba. The sensitisation continues.
