By: Raphael Ekwe In a bid to crushed gender-based violence in Rivers State, stakeholders from government ministries, security agencies, civil society organizations, Religious and traditional institutions gathered in Port Harcourt to brainstorm on a unified Standard Operating Procedure. (SOP) Speaking at the event, the Permanent Secretary Rivers State Ministry of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation, Mrs Lauretta Dimkpa-Davies, declared the meeting a decisive step forward after years of scattered efforts. “A lot of work has gone into this Gender Based Violence sensitization, seminars and all that. And gathered here are some of the stakeholders in the fight against gender-based violence,” she said. Mrs Dimkpa-Davies stressed that the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Law 2020 already exists, yet coordination remains the missing link. “What we have gathered here to do is to put up a standard operating manual. Because we have a lot of stakeholders when it comes to VAPP law and GBV,” she ex...
by Lanre Olagunju A few days into the administration of Olatunji Rilwan Disu, Inspector General of Police,one sentence from his inaugural address appeared to stick in the national memory: impunity is over. Many Nigerians understandably heard that as a warning to policemen. But perhaps the more interesting interpretation was that the warning was broader: impunity, whoever wears it, has no uniform. That distinction matters. In April, when 28-year-old Mene Ogidi was shot dead in Effurun, Delta State, after police operatives reportedly intercepted him over a parcel containing a Beretta pistol and four rounds of ammunition, the response from the Force was unusually swift. The principal officer, ASP Nuhu Usman, and other members of the team were removed from the command and subjected to disciplinary proceedings. The Force Disciplinary Committee found Usman had acted in gross violation of the rules governing the use of firearms. He and four others were subsequently dismissed, with ...