Domestic Violence:NGO Woos NOA

A non governmental
organisation, the Network of University Legal Aids Institutions, has called on the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to do more in educating the public on domestic violence in the society.
The senior programme officer of the organisation, Mrs Odi Lagi, made the call earlier in the week in an interview with newsmen in Abuja.
She stated that violence against women is a crime and so the public should be made to know that victims ought be supported instead of being stigmatized.
In her words, “the agency through its project, Amber Alert for Social Justice. Is working to educate the society that domestic violence is a crime with a very dire consequences on the lives of those involved.”
Mrs Lagi noted that though government had provided laws, there was the need for victims to report cases of violence, she condemned in clear terms situations where some religious places tell their member-victims of domestic violence to pray rather than encourage them to report cases to the appropriate agencies.
Meanwhile, Mrs Lagi has also highlighted the need for members of the police force to be trained to respond to domestic violence, “they must be trained to see domestic violence as a grave offence”, she explained.
She however, enjoined the police to treat case of domestic violence as criminal and not as a mere family affair that need no intervention.