Gender Group Battling With 3 Rape Cases In Cross River

Board of Trustee member, Gender and Development Action (GADA), Amb Nkoyo Toyo, has disclosed that her organisation currently has

three cases of rape which it has been pressurizing appropriate government agencies to take over the prosecution process and ensure that penetrators of the distantly acts are brought to book.

Nkoyo stated this yesterday during the training of 35 members of Community Crises Management Team (CCMT) on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) prevention and response with the theme, “Building Safer Communities” at Women Development Centre, Calabar.

“We have about three cases that we are battling with, one of such is the gang rape in Calabar South. Another is the case of a pastor at Unical deceiving young girls and claiming to be representative of God deceiving them to summit to him, sleeping and impregnating the girls.

Toyo, former Nigeria Ambassador to Ethiopia and Djibouti, said, “The third case is the one in Akpabuyo where a mentally challenged girl was raped by a man in the community. These are the three cases that we have” Toyo stated.

Toyo, a former member of the House of Representatives for Calabar Municipality/ Odukpani federal constituency stated that the 35 team (trainees) members of community crises management team (CCMT) were drawn from two local government areas of Calabar Municipality and Odukpani to equip them with skills on how to manage GBV crises in their communities.

“We are doing more of prevention than mitigation because mitigation is expensive, time consuming and challenging.

They are faced with obstacles particularly the lack of visible engagement of the police.

“Often times when a case goes to the police, you can be sure that you hear different stories. Our challenge has been enforcement,” she stated.

The Board of Trustee member charged the trainees to by

proactive, ensure that the knowledge gained at the training workshop is put in to use to ensure that there are safer communities for their girls and women.