The Federal Capital Territory’s Mandate Secretary for Women, Mrs. Adedayo Laniyi, on Thursday said 2,344 cases of gender-based violence have so far been recorded in the FCT this year.

Olaniyi disclosed this while addressing journalists in Abuja after a meeting with some stakeholders ahead of activities for a 16-day Activism against GBV, expected to kick off on November 25, 2023.

She said, “10 days ago, the number of reported cases of GBV in the FCT was less than 2,000, but just in the last count on Wednesday, November 22, 2023, the number surged to 2,344 reported cases.”

She explained that the FCT wanted to use the National Dashboard of GBV to create awareness on the underreporting and state of crisis in the communities and six area councils.

She added, “We are a cosmopolitan and as well as a very interesting indigenous community, and in the palaces of our royal fathers they have cases every day, some are so challenging that even how to bring them to the fore for the police to intervene is often challenging.

“So now, the ingenuity of the Department of the FCT Gender’Based Violence Focal person was to create this engagement and let them see that this is not good enough, that if we trigger consciousness within you, then as mothers in those communities, you will do something.

“For me, it also became a trigger and a clear dashboard for my inaugural assignment.”