Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, Timothy Owoeye, has canvassed a need for intending and married couples to be sensitised that “a separated home is better than a six feet below home.”
For Owoeye, forced marriage encourages domestic and gender based violence that is being witnessed across the country in recent times.
He stated that couples experiencing separation in their marriages should be properly reintegrated into the society without stigmatisation to stem the surge of domestic and gender based violence.
The Speaker, while receiving the wife of the state governor, Mrs Kafayat Oyetola, on the floor of the Assembly on Wednesday, held that the idea of looking down on people with separated homes must stop.
He advised that it was better for couples to go their separate ways if they could not sustain their marriages rather than indulge in violence that often end in deaths.
Owoeye called for the strengthening of counselling mechanism to help guide, nurture marriages and protect victims of domestic and gender based violence and in most extreme cases reabsorb those whose marriages are beyond repair into the society.
He said, “The time is nigh for us to begin to sensitise married couples that a separated home is better than a six feet below home. A marriage that is not working is not working, the idea of looking down on people with separated marriage must stop.
“We must strengthen our counselling mechanism to help nurture marriage and protect victims of domestic and gender based violence.”
The Speaker stressed that for offenders of rape not to escape justice, the prosecutor must go forensic to hold perpetrators accountable for the crime.
He said, “With the recent rise in gender based related cases in our state and nation, there is a need to have the judicial process fast tracked.
“I want to join my voice with that of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami SAN, who said, ‘To tackle this hydra-headed menace, my office is currently engaging with heads of courts, for the establishment of specialised courts for the speedy and seamless trial of rape and gender based offences.’
“To further break the cycle of such abuses, the Assembly will further review all existing laws and policy instruments relating to offences of rape, child defilement and gender based violence in our dear state.”
Mrs Oyetola noted that her visit to the Assembly was to seek the support of the House on the issues of rape and sexual violence that had constituted a clear danger to women and girls, as well as the practice of open defecation.
She urged the State House of Assembly to amend the law establishing the Amotekun Corps to legally empower members of the security outfit to use their intelligence service to detect and arrest perpetrators of rape and sexual violence in the state.
She said, “Although we have the violence against persons prohibition Act 2015 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which has not been domesticated here, I must say that our state is not lacking in the relevant laws required to exterminate conducts such as rape and sexual violence in the state.
“The reality is that we still have the prevalence of this conducts and the incidence is assuming a proportion that threatens our peace and development as a state.”
