An illustrative photo.
Editor’s Note: This story is produced in fulfilment of Naija Feminists Media Editorial Fellowship, and is a part of its commitment to ending male violence against women and girls in Nigeria.
“Silence, they say, is an old accomplice.” In Nigeria, that silence has become a weapon, one that helps bury the truth each time a woman is killed simply for being a woman. In the country, Women are being killed in gender-motivated attacks, and according to The FAME Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Nigeria, 401 women lost their lives to sexual and gender-based violence in 2022.
As of 2025, the DOHS (a Nigerian NGO fighting sexual/gender-based violence (SGBV) with femicide awareness, support for victims)Femicide Dashboard has recorded 19 deaths. But because the law has no name for femicide, their deaths vanish into police files, cultural silence, and legal loopholes.
Women are dying in patterns too consistent to ignore, yet the legal system treats each death as an isolated “domestic dispute” or a “relationship misunderstanding.” The killings have a name globally: femicide, the gender-motivated killing of women by men. But in Nigerian law, the term does not exist.
Because the law refuses to name the crime, the justice system routinely fails to see it. Across police stations, the death of a woman at the hands of a partner is quickly recorded under vague classifications such as manslaughter, domestic incident, or family conflict, said Barrister Joy. This early mislabeling shapes the entire legal process, weakening investigations, collapsing prosecutions, and erasing the gendered nature of the violence entirely. Lawyers and gender-based violence (GBV) advocates say the consequences are deep. Nigeria cannot fight what it refuses to legally define.
Nigeria Must Name Femicide”: NFM Calls for Legal Recognition, Harsher Punishment as Fellowship Spotlights Rising Gender Killings
Simbiat Bakare, a women and girls right advocate and founder Naija Feminist Media (NFM), a media-advocacy organisation dedicated to amplifying the voices of women and girls, says Nigeria’s refusal to recognise femicide, the gender-motivated killing of women and girls is contributing to rising violence and a culture of impunity.
At the organisation’s inaugural 16 Days of Activism Fellowship, which focused this year on femicide, Simbiat said the country’s legal and cultural denial of gender-motivated killings is costing women and girls their lives.
A Fellowship Born from Urgency
According to Bakare, the fellowship was inspired by the alarming rise in gender-related killings across Africa and aims to deepen understanding of femicide from cultural, religious, and legislative perspectives.
This years event marks the first edition of the 16-day fellowship, attracting fellows from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Canada.
She noted that Nigeria has recorded over 100 femicide cases in 2025, following an even higher number in 2024. Yet, there is still no law recognising femicide as a distinct crime.
“When something is not named in the law, it becomes difficult to treat it as a problem, to hold perpetrators accountable, or even to acknowledge the reality that men are killing women because they are women,” she stated.
Media Silence, Societal Denial
In an interview with The Colonist Report Africa, Bakare criticised the Nigerian media for failing to consistently spotlight gender-motivated killings.
She said while survivors’ voices sometimes make headlines, she notes that the narratives often ignore perpetrators, reinforce stereotypes, or mislabel gender killings as ritual killings. This inconsistent attention, she argues, causes cases to lose momentum and justice.
The group referenced the Ochanya Ogbanje case, which only resurfaced in court due to sustained public and media pressure. “When the media stops talking, accountability fades. The public doesn’t know what is happening, and perpetrators often walk free.”
Weak Justice System, Police Failures
The women and girls right advocate highlighted widespread nonchalance in the justice system from police mishandling cases to court judgments that priorities technicalities over the lives of women and girls.
Some examples cited includes Police officers allegedly directing perpetrators’ families to offer monetary compensation to victims’ families.
Others cited cases are; Victims being pressured to withdraw cases, Cases being dismissed as “false accusations” without real investigation, and Survivors treated as if they are the ones on trial.
She also expressed concern over the inconsistent sentencing of perpetrators. “Although a pastor who killed a woman was eventually convicted due to public attention, other cases like the widely referenced killing of Augusta by Benjamin Best remain unresolved”, Bakara said.
According to her, Statistics by NFM shows that only 62 perpetrators have ever been convicted for killing women and girls in Nigeria’s history.
Legal Vacuum and Cultural Barriers
Despite global shifts, Nigeria remains one of few countries yet to legally recognise femicide, said Bakare.
She noted that the country’s lawmakers often argue that “other nations have not recognised it,” a stance she describes as colonial dependency and societal disregard for women’s lives.
Cultural attitudes such as silence, “leave everything to God,” and police demands for money also hinder justice. “Women and girls do not need to die before there is pressure for change,” she said.
She further called for major reforms, including legal recognition of femicide as a distinct offence, strict timelines for resolving femicide cases, harsher penalties for perpetrators, laws criminalising murder apology, rape apology, misogyny, and online support for perpetrators, the inclusion of women and girl focused expertise in legal and investigative processes, and consistent media reporting that centres perpetrators rather than reinforcing stereotypes about victims.
“Nigeria must name femicide. Men should not be killing the women and girls in their lives and when it happens, the law must respond with clear, uncompromising justice.”
Police perspective : femicide; a matter of nomenclature
Officer Lucky Anyogu, a forensic personnel with the Imo State Police Command, acknowledged that while femicide is not formally recognized under Nigerian law, the punishment for such crimes remains the same as for murder or homicide.
Speaking on the issue, Anyogu explained that the offence falls under the same legal category since it involves the unlawful taking of life. He described the distinction as “a matter of nomenclature,” stressing that the absence of a specific legal term for femicide does not hinder police investigations.
“Whether it is a man killing a woman he knows, or a woman killing a man she knows, both perpetrators should face the same punishment. What matters is the reason behind the killing,” Anyogu said.
Anyogu further emphasized that the law treats all homicide cases equally, regardless of gender. However, he noted the growing pattern of gender-targeted killings and urged the federal government to take proactive measures to address the trend.
He highlighted the importance of recognizing femicide as a distinct social problem, even if the legal framework currently categorizes it under general homicide. According to him, such recognition would help authorities develop preventive strategies and strengthen public awareness
Legal Implications: How Misclassification Affects Justice
In an interview, Barr. Dogo Joy, a private lawyer, FIDA volunteer, and founder of She Resonance, explained how the absence of a femicide law affects every stage of justice:
“In Nigeria, the law does not recognise femicide as a special case of concern; it only recognises murder and often misclassifies cases of femicide as murder or manslaughter. This inaction affects the quest for justice because femicide is a pattern that calls for urgent attention. If it is not recognised, you cannot develop workable solutions.”
She pointed out that globally, 25 per cent of women are killed by a present or past partner, a reality that underscores the urgent need for a systemic response.
Digital Platforms: A Crucial but Often Silenced Space
While the law remains silent, digital platforms have become one of the few spaces where advocates can speak about femicide. Yet even there, new obstacles appear. Barr. Joy referenced the case of Ochanya Ogbanje, the 13-year-old whose death initially faded from public attention but was later brought back into focus through social media. Online advocacy and sustained posts forced renewed scrutiny, ensuring the case received proper attention and investigation.
“Without sustained public pressure, many cases would disappear before the first court date,” Joy said. Online attention compels police to investigate thoroughly, prosecutors to stay engaged, communities to confront uncomfortable truths, and lawmakers to respond to public demands.
However, another barrier comes from Big Tech. Platforms like Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and TikTok frequently shadow-ban or suppress posts containing GBV-related words such as rape, sexual assault, violence against women, and femicide. Automated filters often reduce the visibility of these posts or remove them entirely.
This algorithmic censorship mirrors the silence embedded in cultural and legal systems. When essential terms are muted online, survivors, journalists, and activists struggle to build awareness or mobilise public outrage.
“When you refuse to call a crime what it is, or when the system hides the words we need to describe it, you help society pretend it isn’t happening,” Barr. Joy said.
The Legal Gap and the VAPP Act’s Limits
Even when tools exist to protect women, they are not evenly available. The Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act, Nigeria’s most progressive legislation against GBV, is in effect in some states but not in others.
Uneven domestication creates a patchwork of protection. In states that have not domesticated the VAPP Act, families are forced to rely on outdated penal codes that do not recognise patterns of gender-based violence at all. Even where the Act exists, police officers are often unaware of what the VAPP covers or how to apply it. The biggest challenge is that the law itself does not recognise femicide as a pattern of special concern. As a result, the fate of a woman killed by her partner often depends more on where she lived than on the facts of her case.
Why Naming the Crime Matters
To Barr. Joy and many feminist advocates, the refusal to name femicide is not a small technical omission; it is a national blind spot with devastating consequences. Recognising femicide in law would transform the justice system in three critical ways:
1. It forces police to investigate differently.
Officers would be required to collect evidence showing intent, history of abuse, and established patterns. Women’s deaths could no longer be dismissed as “domestic issues.”
2. It changes how courts interpret violence.
Judges would be guided by a definition that acknowledges gender-motivated killing, reducing the tendency to downgrade charges to manslaughter.
3. It reshapes public understanding of violence against women.
When the law names a crime, society must confront it. Legal clarity around rape has shifted cultural attitudes; acknowledging femicide would reframe how Nigerians understand the killing of women.
“There can never be full justice for femicide; no punishment can equate the irreplaceable loss. But that is why we need proactive measures instead of waiting for another woman to be killed before taking action,” she said.
Urgent Reforms Needed
Women’s rights organisations, including FIDA, are available to take up GBV and femicide cases. Barr. Joy encouraged individuals to “use Google to find the women’s rights groups near them and report cases immediately.”
“The law must become proactive rather than reactive. We need social awareness campaigns, digital engagement, and legal recognition of femicide as a special issue of concern,” she said.
These reforms are not bureaucratic luxuries; they are life-saving measures. Every day the law refuses to name femicide, another woman’s death risks being erased. In the absence of recognition, the killings continue uncounted, misclassified, and underreported.
When the law names the crime, Silence can no longer rhyme.
