Lagos gets tough on wife beating

Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola has promised women in the state that his administration would fish out men who beat their wives and make them face the law, just as he commissioned a 176 bed facility at a transit home for traumatized women and children in the state.

The governor made the pledge yesterday while addressing residents of the state who converged on Ayobo town in Ipaja-Ayobo Local Council Development Area (LCDA) where the Refuge Home is sited. He said his government was ready to lead the war on wife battering, rape and trafficking.

"In Lagos , we will not give up, we will lead the fight against women because there is no life without a woman," he said. Earlier, the state Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Mrs. Joke Adefulire, said violence against women and children was not acceptable in the state.

She said the Home would challenge domestic abuse in the state until it is reduced to the barest minimum, noting that domestic violence was on the increase in the state and had traumatized victims. She added that such acts had led to increase in the number of area boys, prostitution and divorce.

She maintained that the Home was not to be a permanent abode for victims of violence, but a centre where women and children who had been exposed to domestic violence and abuse can go for proper counselling and medication. The chairman of the LCD where the Home is sited, Prince Bisi Yusuff thanked the state government for locating it in his domain.

He said the rehabilitative effort of the state government would offer succour to victims. Yusuff assured the state governor that residents and community leaders in the council would take full responsibility by ensuring that the Home was well protected and not subjected to any form of abuse, either environmentally or physically.

Daily Trust

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