The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has said that Abia State ranks highest on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) rating among the five South-eastern states.
The NHRC Coordinator in Abia, Mrs Uche Nwokocha, disclosed this in an interview in Umuahia.
Nwokocha expressed concern over the ugly development. She spoke in observance of this year’s 16 Days Activism Against Gender-Based Violence on Women and Girls, with the theme, “Invest to End Violence Against Women and Girls.”
She described GBV as “a violence directed against a person because of that person’s gender or violence that affects persons of a particular gender disproportionately.”
Nwokocha, a former NHRC Coordinator in the South East, said: “I can say authoritatively that GBV is on the increase in Abia.”
According to her, GBV cases are highest in Abia, because of the peculiar custom and tradition of the people, nonchalant attitude of parents in protecting their daughters, and the reluctance of families and women to pursue GBV cases.
The NHRC boss decried the rising wave of GBV between 2022 and 2023, as reported to the Commission. She said that the increase in the reported cases might not be unconnected with the rate of awareness created by the Commission, when it started operation in Abia.
She called for the full implementation of the state’s Female Persons Right of Inheritance Property Law 2022 and Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Law 2020, to protect the rights of women and girls.
