The Lagos State government, through its Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA), says it received 5,624 Sexual Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) cases in one year.

Titilayo Shitta-Bey, the solicitor-general and permanent secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Justice, made this known on Thursday in Ikeja at the media briefing to commemorate the domestic and sexual violence awareness month, which is September.

Ms Shitta-Bey, who was represented by the executive secretary, DSVA, Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi, said from August 1, 2022, to July 2023, the agency received 5,624 cases via the Virtual Referral and Response Service (VRRS) and physical report.

She said the agency now received an average of 250 clients monthly.

According to her, for cases concerning adults, 91 per cent of survivors are female and nine per cent are male, whilst for children, 45 per cent of survivors are boys and 55 per cent are girls.

She also said that of the 5,624 violence cases, 2,331 reports were domestic violence, 90 were rape issues, 72 were sexual assault, one was an attempt to commit rape, two were sexual assault by penetration and 123 of the cases concerned threat to life.

The permanent secretary said there were 609 cases of separation, failure to take responsibility of child(ren), neglect, child abduction, child labour, custody; 384 cases of non-gender based violence, which were tenancy disputes, assault simplicita, among others.

She said that of the 5,624 cases recorded, 143 were of child abuse and physical assault, 235 were defilement cases, three were of defilement/molestation by minor to minor, and 33 cases were sexual harassment/molestation.

”A total of 1,598 children have experienced emotional abuse (that is, these children have been exposed to domestic violence within the home).

”Forty per cent of these children have been taken through counselling programmes to ensure they are able to psychologically deal with the events they have witnessed, without it having a permanent and negative impact on them.

”We have also witnessed an increase in reporting of cases from other states, mostly from the South-West and South-East regions. In the past 11 months, a total of 248 cases were reported outside Lagos. Such cases are promptly referred to the relevant agencies in their respective states.

”All the survivors of sexual assault received medical attention from comprehensive primary health care centres, general hospitals and sexual assault referral centres, including Mirabel Centre, Women at Risk International Foundation (WARIF), as well as Idera Centre,” Ms Shitta-Bey said.

She said that in the period under review, the agency had provided services to seven persons with disabilities experiencing one form of GBV or the other.

The solicitor-general said the youngest child who experienced sexual violence was an 18-month-old baby, while the oldest client who experienced domestic violence was a 79-year-old woman.

(NAN)