The Edo State Government has raised the alarm over rising cases of defilement, disclosing that 72 cases were recorded between January and July 2026.
The Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Eugenia Abdallah, disclosed this during the bi-monthly press briefing organised by the state Ministry of Information and Strategy.
She said over 50 per cent of the cases were allegedly perpetrated by fathers of the victims. The minors involved, she added, were between the ages of 2 and 10 years.
Abdallah cited the case of a 14-year-old girl currently in government custody who is eight months pregnant. According to her, the girl was allegedly impregnated by her father and the case was reported by a neighbour.
“When we asked her about her father, she told us that she had lost her father and pleaded with us not to have him arrested. Meanwhile, she is the only person who can tell us where her father is,” the Commissioner said.
The ministry said it is providing care and support for victims while working with law enforcement to ensure perpetrators are brought to justice.
She expressed the state government’s commitment to ensuring that vulnerable citizens are not merely identified but protected.
“We will ensure that survivors are not merely heard but supported; that women are not merely trained but provided opportunities for economic advancement; and that social-protection programmes increasingly produce measurable outcomes.”
She listed 21 major activities, interventions and achievements by her ministry within the period under review.
According to her, Edo State successfully hosted the 25th National Council in Benin City in November 2025, bringing together Federal and State officials, development partners, CSOs and other stakeholders to advance national dialogue on women, children and social development.
On sexual and gender-based violence, she said her Ministry commissioned the Sexual Assault Referral Centre in Uromi in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration and partners, while work continues towards establishing another Centre in Auchi.
“The Ministry conducted awareness campaigns on cyberbullying, online harassment, cyberstalking, digital exploitation, privacy and responsible technology use, culminating in validation of a Technology- -Facilitated GBV Policy Framework in June 2026.
“On women’s economic empowerment, business and digital-marketing training was provided to women across the three senatorial districts, followed by 100,000 grants to 171 beneficiaries to strengthen their businesses.
“On women’s mini trade fair, a three-day trade fair provided women entrepreneurs, traders and artisans opportunities to showcase products, attract customers, increase market visibility and build business networks.
” On women’s health and wellness, the Ministry, in collaboration with the Office of the First Lady, organised a health, fitness and wellness programme at Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium to promote preventive healthcare and healthy lifestyles among women.
“On the digital child-welfare case management, the Children First Software was introduced to improve documentation, case tracking, accountability, family tracing and monitoring of children in institutional care among others” she declared.
Also speaking on steps taken by the state government to protect residents of the state, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Kassim Afegbua, reiterated the government’s ban on movement of motorcycles in the Benin metropolis, adding that it’s for security reasons.
He added: “We are not pretending about it. The reason why this was done was purely for security reasons. And the kind of reports we get on a daily basis have become a security concern to us. People use Okada (motorcycle) to kidnap people, to do robbery. They carry their passengers, they take them to a lonely place and dispossess them of their belongings.”
On his part, the Managing Director,
Edo State Geographic Information Service (EdoGIS), Dr Innocent Bello,
said one of EdoGiS ‘s most important achievements has been the digitization of more than 30,000 legacy land files and Public records inherited from the former deep western region, because in the past we have had copies and all was lost.
“But with digitization, based on hardware and software, we are able to transfer them from hard copies to digital copies, so that one will be able to query or click the computer and have all the records.
“This has strengthened the security and accessibility of land records, and reduced dependency of paper files. In addition, the agency also significantly improved the speed and accessibility of certificates of occupancy processing.”
