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The Kogi State House of Assembly has reiterated its commitment in the speedy passage of Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP), bill in the state.
It was reliably gathered that the bill is currently at the committee stage in the house.
The chairman, Joint Committee of Women Affairs and Judiciary representing Igalamela Odolu State constituency Barrister Cosmos Atabor disclosed this on Wednesday when he received the sponsor of the bill, Challenged Parenthood Initiative, (CPI), in his office.
The CPI team who were received on behalf of the committee chairman by the Deputy Clerk of the house Alfa Ndagi, were told that the Assembly is working round the clock to see that the bill is passed into law and assented to by executive arm of government.
The chairman explained further that the committee for several weeks held a technical session where salient issues about the bill were raised and the opinion of various stakeholders was judiciously considered.
Speaking further, Atabor averred that the bill is left with three processes before it will be passed to law.
He however opined that the biggest hurdles to climb is the enforcement of the bill.
Earlier, the Executive Director, Challenged Parenthood Initiative. (CPI), Eunice Abimbola Agbogun told the lawmaker that they were in his office to do a follow up on the bill after a successful public hearing and to get first hand information on the progress report of the bill.
Agbogun while lauding the Kogi State House of Assembly for writing their names in gold like many other states who had passed the bill into law pointed out that the organization and its partners has continued to received positive feedback on the important of the bill to stop domestic and other related violence in the society.
The Joint Committee of Women Affairs and Judiciary is expected to submit it report in the floor of the hallow chamber in the next couple of weeks.
It could be recalled that, twenty three out of the 36 states of the federation are yet to domesticate the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act, five years after the Act was signed into law.
The VAPP Act is a law that guarantees protection of the rights of victims of all forms of sexual and gender-based violence in the country.
Fifteen out of these 23 states, representing 65 percent, are Northern states, six, representing 26 percent are in the Eastern region, while one is a South-western state, according to data collected by an organization called TechHer.
The states are; Sokoto,Katsina, Jigawa, Yobe, Borno, Zamfara, Kano, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Kebbi, Niger, Nassarawa and Taraba.
Others are Kwara, Kogi, Ondo, Delta, Imo, Abia, Rivers, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom.
Only 13 states including the FCT have domesticated the Act since it was enacted five years ago.
They are Kaduna, Plateau, FCT, Benue, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Ogun, Lagos, Edo, Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi, Cross River.
Signed into law by former President Goodluck Jonathan on 2nd May 2015, the VAPP Act is the single law in place that transcends the criminal and penal code in guaranteeing justice and protecting the rights and properties of victims of sexual and gender-based violence across the country.
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