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Until recently, victims of violence especially domestic violence or intimate partner violence suffered in silence because the society takes such acts as family affairs that should not get out of the confines of the home and because many are not aware that the law made provisions for their protection because violence is a criminal offence.
One of the remedies available to victims of violence is the Protection Order which is an order given a court of competent jurisdiction which prohibits the perpetrator from committing any act of further domestic violence; prohibits the perpetrator from entering the victim’s residence, workplace and sometimes, mandates the perpetrator to pay emergency monetary relief to the victim in cases where the victim is economically tied to the perpetrator.
Violent act that involves getting a protection order includes any act or attempted act that causes or may cause any person physical, sexual, psychological, verbal, emotional or economic harm in private or public life.
People have wondered whether there are civil protection orders for cases of domestic violence legally. According to the provisions of the constitution, there are legal protection orders for victims of domestic abuse in Nigeria. And the law gives room for protection order to be issued to both civil and criminal cases.
Chapter 2 of the High Court of Lagos State Law specifically speaks on this. And Section 28(1) of the Violence Against Person Prohibition Act provides that a complainant can apply for a protection order that would be effective throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria if granted.
Also, Section 2(1) of the Lagos State Protection against Domestic Violence Law (PADVL) provides that any person who is or has been in a domestic relationship with a respondent and has been subjected or allegedly subjected to an act of domestic violence (including any child in the care of the complainant) can apply for a protection order.
Applications for protection order can be filed by a complainant or any other person representing the complainant as long as such person presents a written consent of the complainant which can only be waived if the complainant is a minor, unconscious, unable to give consent or is mentally retarded.
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