By James Ogunnaike, Abeokuta

Advocates for survivors of sexual and gender based violence have disclosed that the culture of silence by victims of gender-based violence is crippling the efforts of the Nigerian government to serve justice.

The advocates, who disclosed at a capacity building workshop organised by the Headfort Foundation For Justice in Abeokuta, Ogun State, noted that the silence culture of the survivors of gender based violence is hindering government and law enforcement agents from bringing perpetrators to justice.

The Executive Director of the foundation, Oluyemi Orija said the disturbing trend, if persists will continue to prevent the country’s pursuit of justice for gender based violence perpetrators.

Orija, stressed that sexual violence affects both males and females, but the silence of survivors is a major challenge.

She said, “the culture of silence is a significant obstacle to justice. How often do we have male survivors come forward to complain? Both genders are affected, but the silence is deafening. It is important for us to have this capacity building for stakeholders who are handling this sexual violence cases.

“Sometime last year, we were at the Chief Judge of the State office and we saw how low the number of gender base violence cases that made it to the judiciary compare to the number that were reported at the police station. It is even less than the number of cases that made it to the judiciary”.

“We have seen sexual violence as capital offence because at the end of the day, the victims are still alive and feeling the pain physically, psychological and mentally. They continue to feel the pains and some never recover from it. It’s a very huge crime that needs special attention”.

Earlier in his keynote address, the Chairman, Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Abeokuta branch, Mr. Bolarinwa Odeyale insisted that advocates and law enforcement agents must ensure that survivors of sexual assault are heard and get justice.

His words, “the police should be professional in handling cases of gender based and sexual violence. They must not add to the pain of the victims by blaming them for the incident”.

Speaking on behalf of the Police, DSP Oluwole Folashade described the workshop as opportunity for all officers and other participants to learn how they can handle the cases of gender based and sexual violence.

“It is an opportunity for all officers and other participants to learn how we can better handle sexual violence cases. There are lot of perspective to handling sexual violence cases . We all have different understand of such cases and we have different ways of handing it.

“However, we should be mindful of the law. It’s not about our religion, it’s not about our culture, it’s not about the society or the community that we find ourselves. It’s about what the law says that is where we should concentrate particularly as law enforcement officers