Brave Dickson
The Rivers State branch of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) has identified sexual violence as one of the many challenges confronting children in Rivers State.
While highlighting the challenges of children in the state, the chairperson of FIDA, Adata Bio-Briggs told our correspondent that report of sexual violence against children is on weekly basis in the state.
Bio-Briggs said this in commemoration of this year’s World Children’s Day.
She said: “Failure to provide for the children by parents is one challenging issue that has been going on for a while.
“We also have incidents of sexual violence against children every week in Rivers State.
“We also have a high rate of children out of school despite the free education in the state.
“We also have a lot of children hawking and high incidents of child abuse on children living with people.
“We already have some laws which we want to be thoroughly enforced.
“A research centre should be provided to help in the enforcement of children’s rights.”
Report had also shown that in Nigeria, primary education is officially free and compulsory but 18 million of the country’s children aged between 5 – 14years are not in school.
