The Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, says the Sex Offender Register will be fully implemented to protect girls and women from sexual abuse in Nigeria.
Mrs Tallen gave this assurance when she took a tour of the National Centre for Women Development (NCWD), on Friday, in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the minister, who decried the rising cases of women abuse in the country, also held an interactive session with members of staff of the centre.
“The sex offender’s register would be strictly implemented; any sex offender that is found wanting will face the wrath of the law.
“I commend the Ministry of Education because the step taken is a clear warning that any professor, lecturer or person that messes around with the life of any girl would be severely dealt with,’’ she said.
The minister, however, assured the centre of the ministry’s support.
Mrs Tallen urged the centre to collaborate with the National Bureau of Statistics to gather data on women, which would aid in the planning and execution of projects that would empower more women.
The Director-General, NCWD, Mary Ekpere-Eta, on her part said the centre plans to establish zonal training centres in all the six-geopolitical zones to it build the capacity of rural women in the country.
Mrs Ekpere-Eta said establishing the zonal offices would enable the centre reach out to more women in all the local government areas, increase the number of beneficiaries of various skills acquisition, as well as reduce the cost implications of training.
“The Federal Government has properties all over the federation, some are not being used; so we are searching for such properties, we will just renovate and take off from there.
“The Zonal Offices will be supervising the women centres in the 774 local government areas in the country because there is no adequate supervision; most of them are not meeting up with their mandates.
“But when you have these zonal offices, it will be easy to get to the women in the grassroots.
“So instead of bringing them down to Abuja, we will assemble them in the zones or the zonal officers can just go to the local governments to do the training, which will be cheaper, easier to monitor and supervise,’’ she said.
The NCWD boss called on women to participate in any of the skills acquisition exercises that would provide them with alternative source of income.
“Nigerian women should take advantage of all these trainings and develop their own capacity, even if they are government workers, you still need an alternative source of income because salary is no longer enough.’’
NAN
