Justice not only for women, report any female who abuses you – NHRC tells Nigerian men

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has advised men abused by their wives or female partners to report such abuses to the commission to get justice. “From experience and in the course of some investigation, we have found out that many men are usually abused by their wives or female partners, but they hardly complain,” its Zonal Coordinator in Jos, Mrs Grace Pam, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Jos on Tuesday.

“In some cases, their pride as men or the shame of being seen as weak has ensured that such abuses are not reported. “Such men will prefer to suffer in silence and somebody has even suggested that such bottled hard feelings may just be responsible for the rising cases of early deaths among men because they do not yell out like their women counterparts,” she said.

Pam cited a case brought by brothers of a woman, who complained that their sister had been beaten by her husband. “We took the matter to the police station and we got the man arrested, but when we saw him, we were all dumbfounded. “The man had been hit with a pestle or something like that on his forehead by the woman and left with a battered and swollen face. “His sight was frightening to us; he confirmed our fears that it was his wife that beat him up. “At that point, we did not know what to do because he was the victim of the abuse but preferred to endure his pain quietly,” she said.

The official said that the law was protective of the rights of men, women and children, and expressed the readiness to protect such rights.  She said, however, that most of the cases of abuse received by the commission involved men abusing women because the women were normally more vulnerable to such abuses.

Pam urged men to equally seek redress whenever they were abused, pointing out that seeking a third party intervention was usually good to prevent worse scenarios. She also advised men to lodge complaints when they were being denied their basic rights as husbands in their home, and expressed confidence that the commission’s intervention could strengthen marital bonds and stabilise homes.

Pam expressed the commission’s readiness to help the helpless and vulnerable in the society, stressing that its services were free and should be maximised by Nigerians.

The official also cautioned Nigerians against taking the law into their hands anytime they perceived that their rights were abused.

“There are agencies statutorily assigned to handle such violations, Nigerians should patronise them,” she said. (NAN)