Delta Inaugurates Committee on Gender-Based Violence

By Oghenero Orovwuje

Members of the Delta State Technical Working Committee (STWC) on gender-based violence have been charged to ensure they give adequate publicity to their programmes to sensitize their target audience.

The charge was given by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Dr Kingsley Emu when he inaugurated members of the committee to in his office in Asaba.

The SSG tasked the committee members to make sure that the message that they push out should be well defined and taken to the target audience were such issues were recorded.

Dr. Emu counseled that the members of the committee should not be biased in their approach to matters brought before them, adding that aside women, it had been reported that men had also been sexually assaulted.

He urged them to be committed and passionate about their duties as members, saying that task before them was an opportunity to give back to the society.

In an address, Chairman of the Committee, who is the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Women Affairs, Community and Social Development, Mrs. Oghenekevwe Agas, stated that the committee was established as a result of the directive of the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs to collate and input issues of sexual and gender-based violence in Nigeria.

She noted that sexual and gender-based violence deserved a lot of attention, explaining that it was a social issue that affected men, women and children.

Mrs. Agas used the medium to solicit government’s continued attention in ensuring continuous funding for sexual and gender-based violence issues.

The committee has as its term of reference; coordinate the activities of gender based violence team in the state, ensure broad-based response to the escalating gender-based violence incidences, and initiate actions to eliminate all forms of sexual based violence.

It responsibility also included ensuring the collation of data in each gender-based violence in the state and transmitting same into the national based dashboard.

The 20-member committee is drawn from professionals in ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), security agencies implementing partners, religious associations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that handle gender-based violence