Kano State, officially Nigeria’s most populous state, is grappling with a menace that extends far beyond statistics. A damning report has revealed that gender-based violence has reached unsettling heights in the state, prompting a critical examination of the underlying causes. The report also reveals that although the menace extends across the seven north-western states of Nigeria, Kano has the highest number of recorded incidents.
This is despite the promulgation of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act by the National Assembly in 2015, which criminalises various forms of violence against persons, including rape, sexual abuse, harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation, domestic violence, among others in Nigeria.
Mariya Suleiman investigated some of the reasons behind this trend in Kano.
