Child Abuse Prevalent In All Nigerian States – UNICEF

The United Nations Children’s Fund,(UNICEF), yesterday, said violence against children was prevalent across the 36 states of the country.

Chief of UNICEF Bauchi Field Office, Abdulai Kai Kai, who disclosed at a briefing on the 2017 Children’s Day celebration, said: “According to the findings of the 2014 Nigeria Violence Against Children Survey conducted by the National Population Commission with the support of the United States Centre for Disease Control and UNICEF, there is a high prevalence of violence against children in all the states in Nigeria.”

According to him, it had been observed that approximately six out of 10 children experienced some form of violence and 50 percent of all children in Nigeria experienced physical violence.

He added that the “survey also noted that one in four girls and one in 10 boys experience sexual violence, while one in six girls and one in five boys experience emotional violence by a parent, caregiver or adult relative.

“So on the occasion of this year’s Nigerian Children’s Day, all must take action to end violence against children. Violence against children is found to be prevalent in all the states in Nigeria.

“I particularly call on the six states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Jigawa, Plateau and Taraba, which are supported by the UNICEF Nigeria, Bauchi Field Office to take action to end violence against children.”

Kai Kai lamented that of the six states under the UNICEF, Bauchi Field Office, only Plateau and Taraba adopted Child Rights Laws despite the passage of the Nigeria Child Rights Act by the National Assembly in 2003.