Two hundred and thirty out of 350 women who died in Lagos between 2020 and 2024 were intentionally killed, a study has shown.
The study “Measuring Femicides in Lagos State: Data, Advocacy and Action”, conducted by the Nigeria Police with support from the Bloomberg Philanthropies, Data for Health Initiative, and Vital Strategies revealed that 70 of the women were killed just because of their gender, a development that showed a relatively low percentage (0.23%) of femicide when compared to the 2.9 victims per 10,000 females in Africa in 2023.
Findings of the year-long study were made public on Thursday at an event attended by the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Kareem Alogba; Commissioner of Police (CP), Olohundare Jimoh; Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Femi Martins, and several top-ranking judicial, correctional service, and police officers.
Presenting the executive summary, Police Pathologist, Dr. Samuel Keshinro, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), said the femicide cases constituted 87℅ of the total females who died within the period under review.
According to him, a total of 1,666 unnatural deaths involving males and females were reported to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) during the study period, consisting of 1,316 males (79%) and 350 females (21%).
“Among the female unnatural deaths, the manner of death remained undetermined in 103 cases (29%), indicating a notable proportion of unresolved cases. Additionally, 11 cases (3%) were classified as suicides, six cases (2%) as misadventure, and 230 cases (66%) as homicides.
“The female homicide analysis revealed that 200 cases (87% of homicides) were intentional homicides, with 70 (35% of intentional homicides) classified as femicides, many of which are committed by intimate partners (47% of all femicides).
“Other variables analyzed for femicides showed that about one-third of the victims’ ages were either unknown or not specified.
“However, among cases where the victim’s age was known, those aged 15-44 years represented the majority (44%). Perpetrators were identified in 66 (94%) of the 70 femicide cases, with a male majority of 59 (84%).
“The overall femicide rate in Lagos State appears relatively low, with only 70 cases recorded over five years, averaging 0.23, compared to estimated figures for Africa (2.9 victims per 100,000 females in 2023) and the global context according to the UN.’
“The majority of femicides, accounting for 19% of the total, occurred in Eti-Osa LGA, which also showed a notably high femicide rate of 1.49. Disaggregated incident data indicate that most femicide cases happened during the morning hours (06:00-11:59), with March registering the highest number of incidents, representing approximately 25% of the cases. The information provided by the data indicates that there should be more vigilance during this period in preventing VAWG and femicides,” he stated.
Dr Keshinro linked a surge in 2021 cases to the COVID-19 lockdown, when many women were confined with abusive partners, adding that the study also documented disturbing trends, including killings linked to disputes over gender roles, mutilations, and deaths associated with sexual exploitation.
The pathologist stressed that Nigeria lacks standardized categories for femicide, a gap the project aimed to address by aligning police data with UN standards.
He warned that without reliable and disaggregated data, Nigeria cannot effectively design or measure solutions to curb gender-based violence. “Femicide is not just a crime; it is the tragic endpoint of gender-based violence,” he said.
In his remark, CP Jimoh described femicide as a growing concern in Nigeria, urging urgent collective action from security agencies, civil society, and policymakers.
He said the police, as the first point of contact in criminal justice, play a critical role in protecting women and girls, but continue to face challenges in forensic investigations, autopsies, prosecution, and record keeping.
“These gaps have hindered efforts to fully eradicate violence against women, despite Lagos recording comparatively lower femicide rates in this study,” Jimoh said.
He commended the police pathologist and his team for the meticulous job they did in the research, just as he thanked the international partners who supported them.
According to the Police boss, Lagos Command had set up a specialised unit within its Gender Department to handle femicide and domestic violence cases.
Initially donor-funded, he said the initiative was now supported by the Lagos State Government, adding that they currently have a specialised referral centre with officers trained to identify early warning signs of domestic violence; victim handling, among other skills.
“Gone are the days when victims were subjected to humiliating questions. Our officers have been trained to respond with empathy, confidentiality, and efficiency,” he assured.
CP Jimoh said the research would assist the command to better prepare and ensure that the rates remain low in the state, adding that the outcome of the study would also assist the police force in drawing policies in that regard.
Justice Alogba in his speech, urged stakeholders in the justice sector to see every case file that is brought before them as someone’s life and livelihood.
“Taking this kind of data will also help us to appreciate the reasons for the killing of women in all these heinous crimes. All these again will help the jurisprudence and the reaction of the bench on how to deal with such cases. You know that this is a common area, where women are isolated, and you want to send out stronger sanctions. You know that these are just incidental areas.
“We nonetheless apply the law, but we may not want to be as tough as we would in those areas which have been highlighted. So that’s just an example of how we use the data that these great ladies and gentlemen have taken such effort to produce. I’m on the part of the Judiciary Review Committee to ensure that we use this data appropriately.
“We’ll also be a partner in this work, as we’ve always been anyway, in ensuring that these data are properly collected,” he said.
In her submission, Ololade Ajayi, founder DOMF Foundation, revealed that her organisation, through its live femicide tracker, has recorded 140 cases across the country this year alone. She said 11 of the cases were recorded in Lagos within the first half of the year, re-echoing the call for femicide to be recognised as a crime in the country.
