The prevalence of HIV/AIDS is by far higher among female police
personnel in Nigeria than among their male counterparts, and the lead
cause is sexual exploitation by male officers who deliberately toughen
police routines to make the women vulnerable to sexual abuse, an
internal police assessment has found.
A study of the incidence of
the deadly virus within the Nigeria Police Force concluded that male
officers deliberately issue tough regulations that make their female
counterparts desperate and willing to gratify them with sex.
The
report also blamed the high incidence of HIV on female personnel who
deliberately offer sex to their male colleagues, and those who indulge
in “transactional sex”.
In all, a key catalyst for the spread,
the study found, was the indiscriminate sexual behaviour of male
officers who retained several partners and often avoided the use of
protection, such as condom.
The study, conducted in 2010, but only
available to the public now, said on the average the incidence of HIV
among female officers was more than double the rate among male officers.
Titled, “Integrated Behavioural and Biomedical Surveillance Survey”, IBBSS, the study was first carried out in 2007.
Remarkably,
within the three years span, the police force recorded a cut back from
3.6 percent to 2.5 percent in overall HIV prevalence, the report,
triggered by the Police Action Committee on AIDS, PACA, found.
But
on gender-based spread, the report said HIV/AIDS was rampant among
female police officers in Nigeria than their male counterparts, and was
higher than the rate in all the armed forces (Army, Navy and Airforce)
combined.
On state basis, the study found that female police
officers in Abuja had the highest prevalence of 12.7 per cent compared
to 5.6 per cent for male officers. The Abuja rate for female personnel
was the highest in the country, the report added.
It said populations
especially at higher risk of contracting the virus are police officers
on peace keeping operations, border patrol police, special anti-robbery
squad, mobile police, anti-terrorism unit, highway patrol police and
medical units.
On the cause, the report noted, “Strong regimentation
within the force to compel female officers agree to sex, as well as
others who gratify male colleagues with sex and others who engage in
‘transactional sex’”.
It did not provide further details.
Mohammed
Abubakar, the Inspector General of Police at the time of the study,
acknowledged in a preface to the report that the police was aware of the
slant against its female personnel. He however did not say what the
force was doing to reverse the trend.
Police spokesperson,
Emmanuel Ojukwu, told PREMIUM TIMES the Police was doing lot to fight
the scourge of HIV, although he denied knowledge of the details of the
report.
“I don’t have the report, I don’t know what the
recommendations are, but I do know that a lot of efforts are being made
towards getting better accommodation for officers and men of the police
force,” Mr. Ojukwu said.
He said while HIV is a national issue,
the force was making every effort to make sure police officers are HIV
free, and that those infected receive adequate treatment.
He did
not provide a specific answer to the issue of sexual harassment, beyond
saying the current police chief, Suleiman Abba, was working hard towards
generally addressing the welfare of personnel.
Nigeria Police and HIV/AIDS
Nigeria’s
350,000-strong police force, is now deploying the report as the plank
for an action plan to roll back HIV/AIDS between 2014 and 2016.
The
overall goal is to prevent new infection and reduce to its barest
minimum the impact of HIV/AIDS on the force within the period.
The report proposes “Gender policy, Gender sensitive programs, Right protection policies” as ways to stem the tide.
But
the 2010 study, spearheaded by the National Coordinator, PACA, Grace
Okudo, a Commissioner of Police, in partnership with United States
Agency for International Development, USAID, National Agency for Control
of AIDS, Nigeria, NACA among others, provides other telling findings.
While
it blamed the high prevalence of the virus among female police officers
on high sexual activities among personnel, it also pointed at the
relationship between HIV and the use of alcoholic and psycho-active
substances in the police and the military.
Overall, the report noted
that even with the high use of psycho-active substances in the armed
forces, HIV prevalence among military personnel was much lower than the
police.
The report said the disparity may be attributedted to the
relatively better funding of the HIV/ AIDS response programme in the
military.
More girlfriends, less protection
The report said besides HIV, other Sexually Transmitted Infections were also higher among police officers than the armed forces.
It also blamed the accommodation standard among the junior cadre, which constitutes 77.7 per cent of the work force.
“The
Police Barracks environment possesses several factors that can promote
risky sexual behaviour. Some of these include congestion, excessive
sharing of facilities and absence of recreational facilities,” the
report noted.
“The Police Barracks also holds great potential for
repeated and sustained exposure to target individuals and
sub-populations to HIV/AIDS interventions like Behaviour Change
Communication (BCC).”
The IBBS report also said that multiple and concurrent sexual partnerships among officers was high.
Surprisingly,
it noted, even with high occurrence of multiple partners, there was low
use of protection such as condoms among regular partners, especially
with the fact that 31.5 per cent of police officers had been away from
their home or family “consistently” for one year preceding the survey.
The report said the use of condoms in regular relationships was higher among armed forces personnel than police officers.
“Condom
use among girlfriends of Police Officers is 45.4% and is considerably
lower than the Armed Forces, at 64.7%. This high risk behaviours puts
police officers at more risk than their Armed Forces counterpart.
“Sexual
relationship with boy/girlfriend was the most commonly reported
non-marital sex among police (36%) in the last 12 months. Reported sex
with more than one non-regular partner (casual, commercial and
girl/boyfriend) in the 12 months was 14.4%.
“Condom use at last
commercial sex was low among Police (58.9%) compared to the Armed Forces
(86%). Condom use at last sex with casual partners amongst Police was
low (56.2%) compared with the Armed Forces (76.3%),” it said.
http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/180790-exclusive-how-sexual-abuse-by-male-police-officers-fuels-hiv-among-female-colleagues-report.html
No comments:
Post a Comment