The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says violence and crimes against women, had been the on increase, according to data received from the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) and the Ministry of Justice.

The NBS made this known in a statistical report on Women and Men in Nigeria for 2018 posted on its website.

According to the report, rape cases in Nigeria have been on the rise.

The data indicates that the percentage of rape incidence for girls was 63.04 per cent in 2015, which increased to 72.13 per cent in 2016 but decreased to 69.33 per cent in 2017.

Over 90 per cent of suspects arrested for drug related offences in 2015, 2016 and 2017(92.7, 93.5 and 93.8 per cent) respectively were men, while women made up 7.3, 6.5 and 6.2 per cent of the arrests for the same years respectively.

Women aged 45-49 had the highest percentage (27.6 per cent) of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) compared to other age groups, while women aged 15-19 had the lowest at 12.3 per cent (MICS5). The available data from the Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) indicated that about 2 per cent of prisoners/inmates between 2012 and 2016 were
female.

During the same period, prison admission for stealing was 95 per cent male and 5 per cent female; while the percentage of women admitted into prison because of trafficking was 14.6 and 14.5 per cent (for 2015 and 2016 respectively) compared to 4.5 per cent and 2.9 per cent in 2013 and 2014.

In addition, the offence of trafficking in persons occurred mostly in the 16-25 age group, where women constituted about 76.63 per cent of convicted persons for that crime for the years between 2013-2015, according to NAPTIP.