Mandate secretary, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) women secretariat, Hon. Adedayo Benjamins-Laniyi has threatened to fire inactive response team members saddled with the responsibility of reporting Gender Based Violence (GBV) within the territory.
Benjamins-Laniyi who stated this on Thursday in Abuja at an event to mark her hundred days in office put together by YouthHub Africa, lamented the underreporting of GBV cases in the territory and expressed the determination of the current administration to get justice for survivors.
Disclosing that she has also been a victim of violence in the past, the mandate secretary said the FCT administration will set up modalities to bring the right policy, politics and personnel interventions
through official representations to bring an end to GBV in the territory.
Her words: “I did read them the riot act then, and I stated categorically you cannot be listed as a GBV response team member and you are not a team player.
“So we are not going to give you the opportunity to have that in your CV profile and you are not delivering, you must deliver on your commitment.
“If I still get to that meeting, and I find it is only 62 members that are active, I will rather move with the 62 and relieve all others from that assignment until they regain the status of a GBV valid reporting line.” She said.
According to her, in a recent ranking of States On GBV reporting on the National Dashboard by the
Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, FCT emerged winner, as best reporting State on GBV due to various modalities put in place by the secretariat under her watch.
She said: “Marking the 16 Days GBV advocacy were taken to the doorsteps of the 6 Area Councils of the FCT, where the royal fathers provided a window of engagement with FCT residents at the grassroot.
“The impact of the GBV awareness campaign was an unprecedented upsurge in GBV Dashboard.
“Participants at the sensitization programme went home with renewed consciousness on the dangers of GBV menace in the family and society, and the need to join forces with government to eliminate such vice in the Federal Capital Territory.”
Benjamins-Laniyi called on men been abused by their wives in the FCT to report to the secretariat in order for them to get justice.
She explained: “We have even had men come in with cases of abuse from their wives. For men it is a very big challenge, because it is an ego challenge for a man to come and tell you.
“The whole estate in Abuja rose up to defend the man who was going through serial abuse from his wife. The man would keep away and come in late so he could creep into the house quietly and the woman was waiting for him not knowing that the the whole estate was also waiting for her. That was how the case was reported.”
