The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons has urged traditional, community and religious leaders to promptly report cases of sexual and gender-based violence in their communities.

NAPTIP Director-General, Prof Fatima Waziri-Azi made the call in Abuja at a workshop organised with the collaboration of Ford Foundation to discuss SGBV strategies.

The workshop was organised to further strengthen collaboration with traditional rulers, community and religious leaders in the Federal Capital Territory and guard against violence against persons in their communities.

The workshop was part of the activities to commemorate the 2023 days of activism against SGBV.

Mr Waziri-Azi, however, said that with the domestication of Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act in almost all the states in the country, progress had been recorded in favour of violence against persons in the country.

The NAPTIP boss said that almost all the states in the country had adopted the VAPP Act as a law, adding that 34 states actually domesticated it while some states such as Kano and Katsina also incorporated various sections of the Act into their penal code laws.

“So this advocacy workshop is an avenue for us to continue to strengthen collaboration among ourselves, and for us to understand the different rules and responsibility levels. It’s also to let us know issues around SGBV not just in FCT but Nigeria at large.

“We all need to know the role to play at the community level, religion leaders, law enforcement and even the judiciary as a society and as a country. For us in NAPTIP last year alone, we received several cases of SGBV in the FCT; one thing I know for sure is that the culture of silence has progressively reduced in the FCT and this is necessitated by the increase in reportage which is done in trust.

“In the past, people didn’t complain but now the increase in reportage shows that attitudes that need not to be tolerated must not be tolerated. We have cases where neighbours blow whistle on their neighbours; children send us petitions reporting their parents; even spouses report to each other and that is the change we have seen lately and that is the change we keep encouraging.

“We can only encourage this change when people come to report at NAPTIP; most times people’s courage is killed, denying them of justice but when they report and something is done, it further emboldens them,” she said.

She also frowned at a situation where she received complaints of eight rape cases in a day, particularly on November 23, while calling on the community leaders to do more in reporting cases of violence against persons in their communities.

According to her, the government cannot do everything, but with the cooperation of the community leaders, a lot can be achieved in curbing SGBV and other violence against persons.

The Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory, Justice Husseini Baba-Yusuf, commended NAPTIP for achieving breakthrough since the creation of the VAPP Act in 2015.

Represented by Justice Angela Otaluka, the CJ said appointing six Justices of the FCT to handle SGBV cases was because of the interest he had on the issue and to reduce such crime in Nigeria.

He said that judges handling such cases gave reports of progress in that direction, pledging to continue to support NAPTIP with the dispensation of justice to whoever deserved it.

(NAN)