The Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA) has urged Community Development Council (CDC) members to stop frustrating investigations on domestic and sexual violence cases in their areas.

The executive secretary of DSVA, Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi, advised on Tuesday in Ikeja during the engagement of artisans, CDC and Community Development Association (CDA) members on sexual and gender-based violence.

Ms Vivour-Adeniyi said some members of the CDC used to come against the agency’s process of investigating such cases.

She warned that anybody who disrupts or frustrates the efforts of the agency at curbing sexual and gender-based violence was liable to three years’ imprisonment.

The executive secretary, therefore, urged the artisans and CDC members to acquaint themselves with the necessary law to assist the state government in the fight against sexual and gender-based violence.

She said the purpose of the engagement was to sensitise them about such violence and the need for them to assist in curbing it.

”Sexual and domestic violence thrives in a culture of silence; we encourage people to speak up and speak out,” Ms Vivour-Adeniyi said.

She urged the artisans and CDC members to take the message to their various communities, as perpetrators of sexual and domestic violence would be dealt with in accordance with the law.

The executive secretary said the agency had heightened sensitisation and awareness. Hence, there has been a willingness and increase in the report of such violence by survivors.

Giving her presentation, Tinuke Odukoya, the executive director of the Centre for Women’s Health and Information (CEWHIN), urged the artisans and CDC members to join the movement against sexual, domestic and gender-based violence.

Ms Odukoya said that though some persons did not engage in such violence, they became part of the perpetrators by advising the survivors to keep silent. 

(NAN)