It’s illegal to render your wives jobless – Lagos govt tells husbands

Lagos State Government has described as illegal and unacceptable, the act of rendering women, particularly housewives jobless, saying the act is economic abuse and amounts to domestic violence.
This is as the lawmaker representing Lagos East Senatorial District, Gbenga Ashafa, and the Director of the Lagos State Office of Public Defender (OPD), Mrs Rotimi Tolani, said the perpetrators of the child defilement and rape would be liable to life imprisonment upon conviction.
The government also said those who fail to report case of child defilement would be liable to two-year imprisonment, while any perpetrator caught would be made to face the wrath of the law.
Speaking at a Town Hall meeting of the Lagos East Senatorial District, Ashafa, who lamented over the growing cases of children being sexually abused, said it was time for parents to give special attention to their wards as nobody could be trusted with the rate of the social menace.
He said: “Whenever you are bathing for your kids, kindly pay attention to them and ask them of their experience. Don’t ignore them and please listen to them. It is not enough to hand them over to teachers, neighbours or caregivers, you must also give them attention. Examine them and hear from them.”
Ashafa, however, gave financial assistance and empowerment tools to victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence, saying the affected victims must be allow to integrate with the society without fear of stigmatisation and other psychological On her part, Tolani said that the office of Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team, the agency would protect the victim and ensure justice, adding that a stand against sexual violence is a collective responsibility of everyone.
Tolani, who said the common habit by some men to stop their wives from working was constituting emotional and economic abuse, which, according to her, was illegal and punishable offence.