SGBV: Commission seeks more awareness about VAPP Law in Edo

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has urged relevant stakeholders to create more awareness about the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Law in Edo.

The commission’s Coordinator in Edo, Mr Olumide Dosumu, made the call during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Benin on Friday.

The coordinator, who lamented what he described as “rising cases of rape in the state”, said actions must be taken to tackle the menace of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) via the VAPP Law.

NAN reports that the main thrust of the VAPP Act of 2015 is to eliminate violence in private and public life, prohibit all forms of violence against persons to provide maximum protection and effective remedies for victims and punishment of offenders and other related matters.

Dosumu, therefore, explained that “the VAPP law in Edo is the basic law that addresses GBV issues, unfortunately, quite a number of people are still not aware of the law, especially law enforcement officers.

“However, I attended a programme recently where some Civil Society Organisations made certain pledges to help in the production of hard copies of the VAPP Law.

“The hard copies are to be made available to the Edo Police Command; from there, it will go round to all the police divisions in the state.

“A situation where it is someone’s statutory responsibility to enforce the law, but does not know about it, then it becomes difficult.

“Once they have the law, the next step will be to train them on implementation.”