Child abuse on the rise in Nigeria, CPN coordinator alerts parents
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NIGERIA: THE State Coordinator of the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Child Protection Network (CPN), Ogun State Chapter, Mrs. Peju Osoba, has raised the alarm over the upsurge in the incidence of child abuse in the country.
Osoba has, therefore, called on parents and guardians to always be on guard against abuse on their children and wards.
The state coordinator of the CPN, who spoke on Sweet FM 107.1 Abeokuta radio program, monitored by GatewayMail, said that parents must be at alert in providing conducive atmosphere for their children.
According to her, the environment must be conducive for the children to be free in discussing with them in order to avoid becoming victims of abuse.
“We as parents should provide conducive environment for our children to be free to talk with us,” Osoba said, adding: “We should allow the children to air their views so that they won’t be victims of abuse in silence.”
She added: “Many of them are abused and unknown to parents because parents failed to provide platform for them to be free in having discussions.”
The CPN coordinator stated that there was difference between discipline and maltreatment, while advising parents not to be too strict on their children.
Osoba said: “A child that is abused will grow up becoming abuser. In CPN, we are more concern about child welfare and we shall not relent on this.”
“Parents should always encourage their children to talk to them so that what you don’t know they will let you know,” she added.
She also said that government had established a family court which will help in reducing the cumbersome of child abuse cases in court, adding that the court will only treat child related cases.
Osoba urged the government to build transit shelter for victims, who she said needed to be protected.
She clarified that CPN was not rubbing shoulder with the government over child abuse protection, but rather the body was giving supportive roles to the government.
Osoba said that already the CPN had gone to court to purse five cases of child abuse, stating specifically that one of the cases involved a 70-year-old man who defiled his 12 year old step daughter.
The CPN coordinator, who said that the case lasted for three years, and at the end the accused person was sentenced to life jail, declared that the network would not relax in its genuine efforts at fighting to prevent child abuse.
