Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode on Tuesday urged residents in the state not to be afraid to speak out against sexual and domestic violence, saying that it was the first step to waging a war against perpetrators of the act.
The governor who spoke when he received the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team at the Lagos House, Alausa, Ikeja, assured that the state government is ready to protect the identities of those who volunteer to report cases of domestic abuse and sexual violence.
“We just want to appeal to all Lagosians, they should not be afraid to speak out, we have our dedicated lines and we also know that we are going to give resources out, at any point in time they should be ready to speak freely to us.
“We would protect the identities of everyone and the fact is that we should be the first point of call before we know the particular police station that we want our cases to go to”, he said.
Governor Ambode who expressed concern about the rampant cases of rape and domestic violence, also promised to put in place an institutional framework that will make the Lagos State Domestic Violence Law 2007 viable, saying that he will stop at nothing to protect the interest of women and children in the state.
“One of my cardinal programmes in the course of the campaign was that I was going to stand up for everyone and standing up for everyone is actually standing up for women and children.
“These groups in our society are more or less vulnerable and the weakest part of the chain in the society. So, we need an institutional framework, we also need to create institutions that can stand up and support them.
“The society has always been very uncharitable towards …Read More
Source:: New Mail
