Amnesty International Nigeria Supporters Group in Osun State has called on stakeholders to work towards ending the rising cases of femicide in the country.
The Osun State Coordinator of the Group, Joshua Oyebode, made this known on Saturday while speaking during a street awareness and walk organised to commemorate International Women’s Day.
Participants in the walk, dressed in black T-shirts with the inscription ‘Stop Femicide’ had converged on Old Garage, Osogbo and moved through MDS Road before terminating the awareness campaign at Olaiya Area of the Osun State capital.
Oyebode, who noted the increasingly hostile environment women in the country have had to contend with, said that in 2024 alone, about 149 women were murdered in Nigeria.
He also said the walk was meant to create awareness about the social menace of femicide, adding that the time has come for all stakeholders to rise to the occasion and stop the indiscriminate killing of women.
“This year, Amnesty International deems it fit to raise awareness about femicide in Nigeria. We are trying to create awareness about this social menace.
“For instance, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes, 140 women and girls are killed daily globally, and in Nigeria, about 149 women were killed in 2024 due to femicide.
“So, what we are doing today is to build the consciousness of the people on the street about what femicide is and their individual and collective role in tackling the menace of femicide,” Oyebode said.
Offering advice to the government regarding roles it is expected to play to eradicate femicide and other forms of violence against women, Oyebode further said, “Although, Nigeria has extant legislation to the effect that sexual violence should be punished. We have the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act, the Nigerian Criminal Code and the Constitution, which in section 33 guarantees the right to life of every citizen.
“But we have to look beyond the laws themselves. We have to look at the implementation of this law. Admittedly, Nigeria has had an age-long problem of implementation of laws. So, we have to look inward to the existing laws we have to make sure they are more effective in implemention.”
Bola Bamigbola @ThePUNCH
