The TARMA Sexual and Assault Referral Center (SARC) Enugu has been described as a sanctuary for survivors of Gender Based Violence (GBV), speaking out for those in need.

The manager, TARMASARC Enugu, Miss Evelyn Onah stated this in Enugu during an interactive session in a broadcast media.

She said that in August and October this year, the center secured convictions, 7 years and 2 years as well as life imprisonment against perpetrators of SGBV.

According to her “in TARMASARC, we have three ministries working there, they include, the ministry of Gender affairs, ministry of health and ministry of justice. So every staff in that office is from either of the three ministries. We have the counsellors from the ministry of Gender affairs, doctors, nurses and lab scientists from the ministry of health and lawyer from the ministry of justice.

Gender has the duty for counselling the survivor. Health sees to the medical support, the police investigates and charges to court we follow to the later ensuring it comes to a logical conclusion.

Recently we have a woman in the shelter. She ran to us since July, now the children have started going to school. The ministry of children, Gender Affairs and social development is taking care of them, feeding, clothing, shelter and the woman has nothing because the husband caged. Since they came, they are like people that came out from cage, it is a plus to the ministry”.

Speaking on the functionality of TARMASARC, Evelyn said TARMA is a name and SARC is Sexual Assault Referral Center. What we do in TARMASARC include providing free medical, counselling and legal aid. We also have an emergency shelter and provide other psychosocial support to victims as well as survivors of sexual and Gender based violence especially to women and children.”

She continued “the World Health Organisation (WHO) defined Gender Based Violence as abuses perpetrated against a person that is likely to affect or result to physical, sexual or emotional violence.

Forms of violence include sexual, physical, emotional, verbal abuse, any domestic violence, any ill treatment done to anyone because of power imbalance, e.g. anytime a man perpetrates any crime against a woman it is basically because of power imbalance, as a mother you are maltreating your child, it is because of power imbalance. Come to our office to report any of these issues and you will get succor.

We mediate on issues between couples, report every family issue to Tarmasarc, rape, defilement, sexual assault,

How do we provide these services, if you report a rape case to us, we will examine you because we have nurses working there, we have also counsellors who will counsel the victim, the person would be taken to Park lane teaching hospital because we have doctor there who would write a report on the police form. We will make sure the victim or survivor accepts to prosecute. Whenever the victim reports to the police, the police embarks on investigation which afterwards charges to magistrate court, but because the magistrate court does not have jurisdiction over such cases, they will refer to the high court and the ministry of justice will take up from there. End of quote.

Also speaking, a Legal practisioner and National Director of Programmes. League of Women Voters of Nigeria, Nnenna Anozie encouraged victims and survivors of SGBV to report to relevant stakeholders so that there could be an effective collaboration to end the menace or reduce it to the barest minimum.

“if you fall victim of any of these Gender Based violence, be free to report to the police, then police will refer you to the appropriate quota, like the manager Evelyn said, they have all the facilities because, a victim needs psychosocial support, needs to be examined medically especially when it has to do with rape or defilement. The ministry of justice works with the instrumentality of the law which will enable them see that perpetrators do not escape wroth of the law. One of those laws is Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) law brought in 2015 by the then president, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan which so many states in Nigeria has domesticated and Enugu state is one of those states. The essence of this law is to eliminate all forms of Violence against persons not just against women and children, we were using our criminal law to prosecute offenders but this law came in place because of number of violence perpetrated in our societies. This is a veritable instrument that came to eliminate all forms of violence both in private and public life, safeguarding people from violence, providing genuine remedies for victims and survivors, it has compensations, it has remedies and punishment of perpetrators. It penalizes people who aid and abate who intended to help in committing any form of GBV, something like female genital mutilation for instance, you bought razor and you suggested, you advised someone to do so, you have your own punishment. For verbal abuse you can be made to tender an apology to also tell the public, this was not intentional, I was wrong in saying this about this person etc. before now people do not take emotional abuse as something but we have seen that it has taken the lives of people. You can also be made to compensate somebody in cash and it depends on what was charged.”

Furthermore she said “under physical violence we have something like slapping someone, kicking someone, hitting someone, beating someone, pouring substance on someone like acid, hot water, liquid especially when you are angry. Use of force without lawful authority, forced ejection from home, harassment, Intimidation, all of these things constitute what we call physical abuse. We have sexual abuse such as asking for sex before you can give someone something like grade or mark like what some university lecturers do, sex for business patronage, sexual harassment which can be made verbal or non-verbal such as sending unsolicited text messages, somebody can keep it as evidence and bring it before court. It is very necessary we enlighten the public on this because it was not in other laws. Indecent exposure, you send pornography to another person and the person is warning you not to send it but you insisted, if the person provides the evidence in the court, you have to go in for it, so we have a lot of them, sexual intimidation, forced prostitution etc.

“Under this law, rape was expanded to include using any object to penetrate the private part of a person or the mouth of a person. The part that can be penetrated to constitute rape can be vagina, anus or mouth. People do not know, that’s why when they are caught, they will say: I just used my finger or hand to touch the bombom, I did not use my manhood. Emotional violence include repeated insult, some people have committed suicide as a result of that, name calling, body shaming, false isolation from family and friends, denial of inheritance, deprivation of family asset, denial of basic education, abandonment of dependent without sustenance, all these are captured in VAPP law and that is why we want to be using in prosecuting cases of GBV.

Also speaking during the interactive session, the Coordinator, SJN, Margaret emphasized the need to concentrate on rehabilitating survivors of GBV hence the functionality of Enugu TARMASARC.

“Just like Evelyn said, the center is where victims and survivors can access succor before a legal action is taken. When you have issue like this, you first of all make a report to TARMASARC so they can take it up because they work with ministry of Gender, children and social development. My advice to the public is that victims should speak up to relevant stakeholders like ministry of Gender Affairs or the nearest police station. Let there be a synergy to make sure that the VAPP law is fully implemented”.