The Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team has said it received about 194 cases of men who were allegedly assaulted by their wives in the past six months.

The figure was contained in DSVRT bi-annual report published on Wednesday.

The number is 44.33 per cent higher than the 108 assault cases reported by men from January 2020 to June 2020.

The report is for January 2021 to June 2021.

According to the latest report, from January 2021 to June 2021, the DSVRT handled up to 1,329 cases relating to adults.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the data also showed that 77 per cent of the adults were married, 11 per cent single, seven per cent widowed and divorced, while five per cent were co-habiting.

In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the coordinator of the DSVRT, Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi, said that there had been a firm surge in reported cases of gender-based violence on the part of both men and women in the state since 2014.

She, however, said that men had difficulty reporting incidents of assault by their partners mainly due to cultural norms.

“Patriarchy is an enemy of everybody because it keeps people in silence. From a young age, males are not allowed to express themselves when they are experiencing trauma, and that lingers on to adulthood.

“When a man is experiencing violence, even his fellow men mock him, and such a person will not be able to speak up. With the data, we are seeing, we are confident that when men are aware, they can report these incidents.

“They will be treated with empathy and professionalism and they can be encouraged to speak up and report,” Mrs Vivour-Adeniyi said.

The DSVRT report revealed that of the 1,329 adults, 1,236 were aged between 18 years and 45 years while 93 were 45 years and above.

Further breakdown of the figures shows that 954 adults reported domestic violence, 53 reported rape and 29 reported attempts to commit rape and sexual assault.

The report also revealed that the top five local government areas in which the assaults were reported are Alimosho (200 cases), Ikeja (124 cases), Kosofe (123 cases), Ikorodu (115 cases) and Oshodi-Isolo (95 cases).

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.