Lagos records 950 cases of domestic violence in 9 months

LAGOS State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT) on Monday disclosed that no fewer than 950 cases of domestic violence were reported in the state in the past nine months.

The State’s Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General, Mr Adeniji Kazeem, disclosed this during the launch of “Short Code for Reporting Domestic and Sexual Attacks” in the state, which took place at Alausa, Ikeja, noting that the figure was about 100 per cent increase compared to last year’s figure of 452.

Kazeem, who was represented by Alternate chairman, DSVRT, Mrs Omotilewa Ibirogba, also disclosed that 10 persons had so far been convicted and registered in the sexual offenders register in the state.

Speaking on the short code for reporting attacks, the commissioner said all a survivor needed to do was to dial *6820# or send a sms to 6820 (with a keyword e.g. child abuse), and would instantly be fed with “information on steps to take for the respective case.”

According to him, the major aim of the innovation is to ensure survivors of all forms of abuse will be able to reach out to the appropriate agencies and receive timely information about what to do and know how to receive succour.

“Aside from the immediate response, this technology solution would provide victims with, activating *6820# would also assist the state government in gathering and collating incident information, generate heat-maps within the metropolis.

“It will also provide automated daily and monthly reporting, providing comprehensive central database, information system and analytics and providing central information that can also be used for formulation of prevalence and prevention policies for Lagos State,” he said.

He said the technology solution, which had been translated into Yoruba, English, Pidgin, Igbo and Hausa, would enable all residents of the state that have access to a mobile phone to make use of the service.

The technology, she further said would assist the state government in gathering and collating incident information that could also be used for formulation of prevalence and prevention policies.

Kazeem expressed optimistic about the results that the short code would yield in the fight against sexual and gender-based violence.