Akwa Ibom Records 520 Cases of Spousal Battery in three Years

Priscilla Akpanettot

Spousal Battery is a violent act carried out by a person on their wife, husband or partner with the intent of controlling them and causing physical, psychological or emotional injury by inducing fear and pain.

According to statistics provided by Secretary of the Akwa Ibom State Gender Based Violence (GBV) Management Committee, Barr. Emem Ette, 520 cases of Spousal Battery have been recorded in the State in the last three years.

The figure which represents a staggering 56% in a total of 1467 cases of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) is seconded by rape - 401 cases, physical abuse -165 cases, attempted rape - 118 cases, abandonment of dependants - 65, intimidation - 54, harmful widowhood practices -53, incest - 35, forceful ejection from home - 32 and stalking - 21 cases.

She furthered that 210 of the cases were undergoing investigation while 120 of them are cold cases where the perpetrator is unknown and cannot be found or witnesses are unavailable.

"We keep in view until we are able to gather more evidences and we're able to get the perpetrators caught", she said.

Meanwhile, 53 convictions have been made so far, 302 cases withdrawn from Court and 240 settled through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).

Speaking to newsmen in her office last week, Barr. Ette who doubles as  Director of the SGBV Response Department in the Ministry of Justice explained that that the spike in the number of the ugly trend is traceable to the year 2020 COVID-19 pandemic which kept people behind closed doors.

"People who were supposed to be protectors became predators, perpetrators and violators of their husbands, wives, children, neighbors and people generally". 

"And then we had very unnatural offences;  unnatural cases that were not covered by the criminal code which was in existence at that time and not covered by the Child Rights Law which was meant to protect our children". 

"So there was a need for us to have a law which we could use to persecute a male who rapes another male or a female who rapes another female or a female who rapes a male, because under the criminal code the only person who could rape was a man not a woman", she expressed.

"Since we already had the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act at the federal level, there was a need for Akwa Ibom State to adopt that act and make it a law to deal with those cases".

"...so in 2020, June 10th exactly, the Akwa Ibom State Government enacted the "Violence Against Persons Prohibition law" and that law came into being forcefully and we've been running with it since then", she continued. 

Upon inauguration in September 2021, the SGBV Committee embarked on a state-wide sensitisation campaign across the 10 Federal Constituencies of the State with the message of the ills of SGBV, how to identify violence, how to respond to violence and where to report violence. 

The Committee has also established sexual assault referral centers at General hospital, Ikot Ekpene and Heartland Alliance in Osongama Estate, Uyo.

"Government is also looking to reinforcing and supporting the Agape Center in Eket and we are looking to see how we could establish a place where people can access free medical services in our Primary Health Centers".

"We found out that victims and survivors often go to Pharmacies and Chemists for help before they go to Hospitals, so we are trying to see how we could connect Pharmacists and Chemists so that we can have a wholesome way of ensuing that victims and survivors have access to medical care", she said.

Notably, the Committee has built a 66-bed shelter specifically for victims of SGBV, with a well-furnished functional skill acquisition center to teach and train survivors on life skills that would make them financially independent and able to take care of themselves and their children.

A unified referral pathway booklet has also been made available by the Committee to help  educate people on where to go if they are violated or suffering GBV in anyway. 

Likewise, the Committee has created a training manual for Schools, Churches, Mosques and Organizations to teach children and adults on what constitutes GBV.

Speaking on the successes recorded from the yearly awareness campaign held in the month of June, Barr. Ette attributed their feats to the coalition formed against SGBV.

"The energy and fire behind our successes is because the coalition is made up of individuals, institutions and organizations who are working actively to end GBV in the state and I think that is the major source of Akwa Ibom State success in handling issues of GBV.   We recommend that other States form such a coalition to ensure that they are able to deal with issues of GBV", she submitted. 

"As we speak we have over 300 members of that coalition and throughout this one month awareness, each organization is working so hard to take our messages to the nooks and crannies of Akwa Ibom State", she revealed. 

"We have done a lot of rehabilitation and we have given about 350 survivors shelter and skill acquisition in our GBV shelter and then we have responded to over 667 victims of GBV in our different centers in Ikot Ekpene, Eket and Uyo". 

"We are doing the best we can to ensure that we serve our people and to make Akwa Ibom State a peaceful place for us all", she said .

While encouraging victims and witnesses of SGBV to speak up, she instructed that rape cases should be sent to the family support unit at the Police Headquarters in Ikot Akpan Abia for proper attention and investigation while others should be reported to the SGBV department at the Ministry of Justice. 

"We have a website and social media handles where we can be reached, and we have been having a lot of engagements, questions and cases coming in through our social media handles".

"Our website is safe to use, we even have a button where if you have been trying to contact us and your abuser is in front of you, and wants to take on you; you can just click a safety button and that safety button will take you completely out of our website so that even if the person searches your phone to see your history, our website wouldn't appear in your history, it is designed to ensure that they did not know you contacted us but we will respond to whatever distress that you are having", Barr. Ette explained.

The SGBV response department was set up by the State Government as a multi-sectoral approach to respond to day-to-day cases of SGBV.

It is headed by the Wife of the Governor, Pst. Patience Umo Eno and co-chaired by the Deputy Governor, Sen. Akon Eyakenyi.

Members are drawn from Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Women Affairs, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Information, Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance. 

Others include: the media, law enforcement agencies, Non Governmental Organizations (NGO),  traditional rulers, a representative of the youth and a representative of women.