The Amnesty Int’l has urged President Muhammadu to declare rape a national crisis.

The director for Amnesty International in Nigeria, Osai Ojigho said horrific incidents of rape “resonates because even in the spaces that women and girls should be safest from gender-based violence, the home, the schools and now places of worship, it is getting there.

“The method the state has been using over the years, clearly has not moved with the intensity required to deter rapists and potential rapists and to protect women and girls.

Authorities in Nigeria have not done enough to combat sexual violence, she said.

Sexual violence is endemic in Africa’s most populous country. Data on the number of reported cases is very limited but a national survey on violence against children in Nigeria, conducted in 2014, found that one in four women had experienced sexual violence in childhood, with approximately 70% reporting more than one incident. Only 5% sought help, and only 3.5% received any services.