Magistrate Safiya Musa, the Presiding Magistrate, Court 12, has urged the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) in Bauchi to use the profession to eliminate violence against women.
Musa stated this on Saturday at an event organized by NAWOJ in Bauchi to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
She said it was unfortunate that cases of violence against women and girls were condoned in the society.
She said that some of the laws on violence against women that made in the past had a lot of gaps which affected speedy dispensation of justice.
“Some of the laws on violence against women are obsolete because a doctor has to examine the victim of rape and provide results as evidence.
“Also the family or relatives of the victim will not want the child or woman to take up the case, hiding behind the environment and society.
“Violence against women has caused women to remain sick because some of these violence’s are not cure, for example, cases where victims are left with trauma and sometimes diseases, among others.
“Women experience, men calling the women folks with names, they bully them at any given opportunity, which affects them in various ways,’’ she said.
Musa, therefore, called on government at all levels to take up issues of violence against women and girls and work for a lasting solution to the menace for a healthy society.
Earlier, Mrs Bulak Afsa, the NAWOJ Chairperson, Bauchi State chapter, explained that the various forms of violence women and girls experienced affected them both physically and psychologically.
She said every woman had been affected by one form of violence or the other in her life time.
Afsa said all hands needed to be on deck to train and re-train the male child to care and provide protection for the women folk from childhood.
She urged women to take advantage of women gatherings to preach against gender violence and to speak out as mothers and girls.
She further spoke of the need for step down such knowledge to various levels of the society and ensure that mass awareness was created among women.
“Even the way and manner some men address ladies translates to violence, and that is not acceptable.
“Therefore we have to take it up and create mass awareness on all forms of women violence to ensure that the society changes for the better,’’ she said.
In a massage of goodwill, Mrs Aisata Musa, the Secretary, Police Officers’ Women Association (POWA), challenged mothers to refer to their training some 30 to 40 years ago.
She noted that then, mothers took advantage of their position as custodians of the home and employed strategies for coaching and impacting decent knowledge and manners to girl child to ensure proper upbringing and guidance.
The Chairperson, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) women committee, Hajiya Rakiya Malam reminded the judiciary that justice delayed was justice denied, adding that most cases against women violence ended in court rooms without justice dispensed.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Alhaji Ibrahim-Malam Goje applauded members of NAWOJ for such initiatives and urged them to champion the cause of women in the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the international day to eliminate violence against women and girls was being celebrated from Nov. 25, to Dec. 10, yearly.
NAN reports that this year has its theme “Leave no one behind, end violence against women and girls’’. (NAN)