FIDA checks high rate of domestic violence in Kwara

FEDERATION of Women Lawyers (FIDA) in Kwara State has said that high rate of domestic violence in the state has been checked through counselling.

Speaking with journalists at a workshop on the administration of criminal justice act (ACJA) in Ilorin on Monday, the chairperson of FIDA in the state, Hajia Salmat Muhammed, said that an average of seven victims of domestic violence in a week were recorded last year.

Hajia Muhammed, who said that the statistics had drastically reduced in recent time, added that the association, through its intervention, had been at the forefront of fighting for and getting rights for victims of domestic violence.

“Our office was like a thriving hospital before this time. As one set was going out, another one would be coming into the office to report or seek redress and other consultation. But, we thank God, it has reduced to an average of one case in a week now”, she said.

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The FIDA chairperson also explained that victims of domestic violence are not mainly women partners, saying that some men had reported violence allegedly meted on them by their female partners, adding that men had, however, not been coming forward to report cases of domestic violence.

Also speaking, the Kwara state Chief Judge, Justice Sulaiman Kawu, who was represented by Justice Mohammed Adewara, commended activities of FIDA at resolving series of matrimonial cases in the state.

The CJ, who said that such cases had been done free of charge for women and indigent people in the society, called on members of the association not to relent in their effort towards achieving a more peaceful society.

In her presentation, titled, Institutional and policy reform around ACJA, solicitor general and permanent secretary, Kwara state ministry of Justice, Dr Mrs Maryam Mustapha, highlighted some aspects of the reform which prohibited arrest of suspects on civil wrongs that did not constitute a criminal case, among others.