The World Bank in collaboration with the Nasarawa State government on Tuesday held a one-day sensitisation workshop for stakeholders on the dangers of gender-based violence and female genital mutilation.

The workshop brought together community and religious leaders from all 13 Local Government Areas of the state.

This effort, according to the Nigeria COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Project, a World Bank-assisted project, was necessary due to the increasing cases of gender-based violence and other issues affecting the girl child in the state.

During the sensitisation workshop in Lafia, the Gender Pillar Head of CoPREP in the state, Esther Yonah, expressed concern about the negative impact of gender-based violence and female genital mutilation on the self-esteem of women in

Yonah explained that female rights had been the most abused and neglected despite the several campaigns launched to create awareness, which was what necessitated the workshop.

“There have been a lot of issues concerning Gender-based Violence, sexual exploitation and sexual harassment, that was why the World Bank supported Nasarawa State through the Center for Disease Control to implement this project in the state.

“Sometime in February, we were able to call stakeholders here (Lafia) to develop the state’s action plan to ensure that the people are safe in their workplaces, schools and communities,” she said.

She, therefore, appealed to the stakeholders to show commitment to the fight against gender-based violence and female genital mutilation in their respective communities in order to restore the confidence of many oppressed females across the state and to forestall future occurrences.

“So today, we had to step down this action plan to the stakeholders at the community level. Now that they have been trained, they will have to develop their comprehensive plans in their various communities to tackle issues relating to gender-based violence and other matters affecting the girl child,” she added.

On her part, the Director, Public Defender at the Nasarawa State Ministry of Justice, Justina Allu, decried the issue of indecent dressing amongst young females in society.

Allu called for a behavioural change to address the issues of sexual harassment, and sexual molestation, among others.

She said, “For the students and other young ladies moving around naked, they should know that it is an offence in section 26 of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Law in the state.

“Whoever is seen naked on the street commits an offence and the punishment is one-year imprisonment or a 100,000 fine or both. So all the ladies exposing their bodies should be aware that it is not allowed by the law.”

Earlier, the District Head of Wakama electoral ward of Nassarawa-Eggon LGA, Adams Maka-Namgba, who spoke on behalf of the others, expressed gratitude to the organisers of the workshop, while promising to put in their best to proffer solutions to the challenges facing the females in the state.