By: Josia Shigwedha

Community activist against Gender-Based Violence (GBV), Zackary Itodo, has raised concerns about alcohol and substance abuse, which fuel perpetrators to commit violent acts against their partners. Itodo says these suspects usually carry out these crimes that have been on their minds but blame it on substances.

Itodo was speaking to the four reported cases of gender-based violence during the past week. Itodo stated that one of the contributing factors to GBV is that couples cohabitate for years, have children with false hopes of marrying a person, and then dump them.

To curb GBV, Itodo warned couples not to enter into relationships for wrong motives, especially for financial gain. He further told family members to refrain from telling people to stay in abusive relationships because of the material benefits.