.. Says Religious, traditional, community leaders culpable of aiding, abetting menace
From Segun Babatunde in Bauchi
The need for the creation of gender based violence sections in Churches and Mosques in order to fight the menace of sexual and gender based violence against women and girls has been stressed.
Also, Religious, traditional and community leaders have been indicted for aiding sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) through their wrong teachings and administration which mostly give wrong signals for such violence to take place.
The assertion was made by the General Overseer of Peculiar Peoples Chapel (PPC), Bishop Isaac Crown while facilitating a paper during a 2 day Capacity building for stakeholders to bridge the gap created by impunity towards sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) and how to mitigate the practice in Bauchi state holden at Yimir Hotel in Bauchi facilitated by Attah Sisters Helping Hand Foundation (ASHH).
While presenting a paper titled: ‘Bridging the gap of impunity in mitigating sexual and gender based on women and girls in Bauchi – Faith based intervention for Churches and Ckergy’, the Clergyman lamented that religious leaders are found of not telling things the way the holy books want them to be.
Isaac Crown who drew various references from the Bible lamented that sexual and gender based violence have been in existence from time immemorial and has continued to be in the increase because of the wrong teachings by most of the religious leaders.
He also said that community and traditional leaders too are susceptible to the menace as they do everything possible to cover up the track of such violations to the detriment of the victims stressing that at some extreme points, such may lead to death.
The Clergyman said that, “most of the things we do claiming to be tradition or culture are indeed forms of sexual and gender based violence because they were done with a fraction of force and intimidation on the victim”.
He stressed that, “a husband, father, brother or any relatives can be found to be violating the serenity of the girl or woman through actions he thinks are the normal things that are done culturally and traditionally”.
Isaac Crown called on the stakeholders to rise up and fight all forms of gender based violence in the society stressing that unless such was done, more women and girls will fall victims which will negatively affect the society.
He also called for the creation of gender based sections in all churches and mosques so that issues of sexual and gender based violence can be handled effectively and promptly.
The clergyman also stressed the need for the victims to speak out so that they can be rescued, helped and rehabilitated before reintegration back into the society.