From Mustapha Adamu, Kano
The Lagos State Ministry of Women and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA) says it received a total of 662 domestic violence cases in the last one year.
The state’s Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Mrs Bolaji Dada, disclosed this at the 2024 Ministerial Press Briefing to mark the first year anniversary of Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s second term in office.
Dada said that WAPA received direct reports of domestic violence from 247 women and 27 men, while it received 324 reports of domestic violence from women and 43 cases from men through WAPA 767 toll free line for domestic violence victims.
According to her, 592 cases out of the total cases reported were dealt with while 88 were referred to the Office of the State Public Defender (OPD) for persecution.
She reiterated the commitment of the state government to empowering and engaging more indigent and vulnerable women in skills acquisition through WAPA.
“Women who are not empowered are more vulnerable to domestic violence and that is why the state government has put in place empowerment programmes to engage women in various skills for financial dependency,” she said.
Dada said the ministry had aligned its programmes with the T.H.E.M.E.S.+ Agenda of the Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration to promote social inclusion by ensuring that no one is left out in the economic cold.
She noted that the state government, through WAPA, trained 13,500 women and men, through its Short Term Skills Acquisition Programme.
“The four-week programme is an empowerment scheme with the goal of alleviating the challenges faced by indigent residents through skills acquisition and sundry vocational trainings.”(NAN)
