Nov. 3, 2024

Dr Samuel Keshinro, a Pathologist with the Nigeria Police,  an Assistant Commissioner of Police, and the only Force Pathologist in the country says a project is ongoing for comprehensive data collection on femicide cases in the country.

Keshinro, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos.

According to the pathologist, femicide is a gender-motivated violence, especially violence against women and girls.

“Unfortunately, police have no accurate data to address femicide cases nationwide currently, he said.

Keshinro said: “Men have always had undue advantage over women in all things. Violence against women has been the most consistent human rights across the world.

The UN study has revealed that one out of three women may been sexually or physically abused, trafficked, and psychologically traumatised.

“Violence against women occur on the streets, schools, market places, homes, event centres, even sometimes in custodian centers.

“In peace and conflicts, women are the most affected,” he said.

According to Keshinro, the UN study reveals also that the cause of the violence against women and girls are intimate partner related violence.

“Violence caused by husband, boyfriend, ex-husband, ex-boyfriend, reflect the inequality between men and women.

“Such kinds of violence have resulted in the deaths of many women, ” he said, noting that such extreme form of violence or homicide on women should be checked.

Keshinro, who unfortunately noted that there were no adequate data of these crimes, however, said that plans were on to rectify this anomaly within the police force.

He disclosed that the police authority had given approval for his department to partner with Australian-based Bluebird Philanthropist Foundation and the University of Lagos, to research more on femicide data in Lagos State.

According to him, result of the project will be ready within a one- year period.

“I am a director of the research project sponsored by Bluebird foundation; the project is on gender violence against women and girls, that is also called femicide.

“It will be measuring gender-related killings of women and girls (femicide) in Lagos state.

“The project is merely on public health on the death of women,will focus on recommendations for data systems improvements, advocacy and action.

“The project will also look into the gender inequality on women and girls. This is because women and girls are always the victims of gender based violence,” he said.

Keshinro pointed out that the group believed that there was a disproportionate violence against women, stressing that the UN had given special consideration and attention on violence against women and girls.

Keshinro said that a recent report by another group, DHQS Foundation, revealed that 12 femicide incidents were recorded between September and October 2024 in Nigeria.

He noted that while the figure represented cases reported,” many may have not been reported which cannot be captured in the data collection.”

The pathologist said that part of the objective of the project, ” is to be able to ascertain the data of all cases on state by state basis.”

He warned that if the violence was not checked, it could lead to more women’s death.

According to him, when a woman is stripped naked in public for alleged crime, it is discrimination because she is a woman, and this is femicide.

He explained that the scope of the project would include women empowerment.

“The project will look into women empowerment; because if women are in the position of authority, the femicide cases are likely to reduce.

“Since there is no data of femicide in Africa, this project will encourage member nations to have data in a standard form and share so that the citizens will know the magnitude of the crime.

“Part of the project is awareness through the media.

“Before now, when women are molested, they don’t speak out, but now they are talking. And they are advised to talk more.

“The project is also for advocacy. If there is no advocacy there would be no action,” he noted.

Keshinro urged women and girls to always report violence against them.

He called for standard procedure for addressing femicide cases with a view to getting better data.

“One cannot currently say if there is an increase or decrease in femicide cases in Nigeria because of absence of adequate data to back the claim.

“That is what the project is addressing. We need to have actual statistics. This project is to help us have almost actual figure in Nigeria.

“We are going to use the police to get the statistics.

“There would be stakeholders meetings on this project in the next quarter for advocacy and action programme.

“We are going to identify where we will gather our data, police, and the Ministry of Justice; and we want to see the state responses to this investigation.

“The cases reported to the police in each state, how many were prosecuted and those under prosecution?.

“How many went through autopsy. the project will also look into many autopsy centres we have.

“At the end of the project, we must come to a conclusion that a woman was killed; was it by intimate partner or by who?.

“As long as it was deliberately done, it is femicide.

“We want to know the victims if they are young or old. Where were they attacked, what time of the day, what did the perpetrators use against the victims?.

“When we have all these details, the crime rate can be checked,” he said.

Keshinro, however, noted that while the project was working on the women, it would also rob off on the statistics on violence against men.

The pathologist noted that the benefits of the project would include awareness on the crime, creating system of data collections, providing accurate data on femicide in Lagos state.

“The data will enable us to know the trend on the risk factors, know the area of improvement in checking the crime.

“Other benefits of the project will afford training for personnel involved in the project, it will improve the processes of police investigation in homicide cases.

“It will ease data sharing by member states, show the enormous job police is doing in this regard and show the level of forensic centres for the police.

“At the end of the project, there will be information dissemination that will adequately inform the public its findings by the project.

“That report will show where we need to improve on and where we have done well,” he said. (NAN)