It is scary to be a woman in Abuja. Like me, hundreds of Abuja residents were rudely awakened to the horrors of the brutality meted out to over 100 women in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, from 24-27 April 2019, by law enforcement agencies comprising members of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), the Nigeria Police Force, the Social Development Secretariat (SDS) and the Society Against Prostitution and Child Labour in Nigeria (SAP-CLN), among others.
\nThe young women were picked up from several spots across Abuja; night clubs, restaurants, and pharmacies to kiosks, around midnight. They were all arrested, forced into vans and driven to nearby police stations. Those who resisted the arrest were beaten. Most of the women arrested had their breasts and vaginas groped by their male arresters, in search of \u201cexhibits and evidence\u201d as recounted by one of the survivors, who also said that all the women were accused of soliciting sex, forced to plead guilty at a mobile court in Abuja and given the option of paying a fine of N3,000.00, sex for bail, or getting jailed for up to 6 months. According to her, many women who refused to be wrongfully accused were beaten, tortured and raped and that she, alongside two other young women, were raped by four male police officers. Some were tear gassed, while others had their vaginas assaulted with objects.
\nAn investigative report documented by Premium Times, Vanguard and Centre for Women\u2019s Global leadership suggests that what is happening is a sex ring; \u2018a racket and conduit for diversion of government funds\u2019, dating as far as 2012. It reveals that the AEPB in partnership with SAP-CLN carry out raids to get \u2018prostitutes and the destitute off the streets of Abuja and rehabilitated\u2019; a project which the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) invests hundreds of millions of Naira to implement.
\nWhile there has been a sustained outcry over the sexual brutality of the Nigeria Police Force and other law enforcement agencies on the bodies of women, what is currently happening is a reflection of the culture of the larger society in Nigeria where women are treated as less than human beings and objects for men\u2019s sexual pleasures. \u201cMany boys and young men see young women and girls as sport or game. They compete with one another over how many girls or women they can sleep with\u201d, says Ken, a security specialist.<\/p>\n
Women are highly affected by Sexual violence and abuse in Nigeria notably through harassment in politics, schools and in the workplace, intimate partner violence, under-age marriages, wife inheritance, and child rape among others. The way a woman dresses has also been used to justify harassment and rape. As Dr. Eleanor Nwadinobi, a medical doctor and expert on health, gender, women, peace and security puts it, \u201chow a woman dresses should never be a reason for her to be raped by a man. We must train our boys and men to zip up. The burden of proof should always be on the man to prove that he did not step outside the boundaries of respect. For some of us, our great grandmothers wore jigida (waist beads) and yet they did not suffer sexual violence\u201d.
\nSome concepts have tried to explain the root causes of sexual and gender based violence. The first believes that biologically, men are more aggressive than women, have more sexual dispositions than women and are unable to resist the urge to rape due to their high levels of testosterone. The second leans on socio-cultural reasons; that patriarchy positions women as possessions and easy targets for sex and rape, while the third concept looks at rape and sexual violence as strategies to achieve political, social and economic power in order to suppress and destroy. I want to add that it is also important to look at the way men socialize (call it the \u2018guy code\u2019 if you may) \u2013 there seems to be a certain bond among men \u2013 they get along with their fellow men be they strangers or enemie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is scary to be a woman in Abuja. Like me, hundreds of Abuja residents were rudely awakened to the horrors of the brutality meted out to over 100 women…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n