Metro
Senate mandates IGP to probe rape increase in Nigeria
Worried by increasing incidences of rape in Nigeria and its attendant traumatic impact on the victims, the Senate, on Tuesday, urged the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris to investigate and prosecute all cases of sexual abuse, violation and violence in line with the provisions of extant laws of Nigeria.
The Senate also mandated its Committees on Health, Women Affairs and Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters to engage relevant stakeholders with a view to resolving cases of sexual violation in the country.
It further urged the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and paramilitary agencies to establish functional help desk to provide assistance and support to victims as well as handle such cases.
The Upper Chamber also urged all heads of courts to revisit the sentencing policy on all sexual offences and domestic violence to address the seriousness it deserved.
The apex legislative assembly arrived at these resolutions following a motion entitled, “urgent need to investigate the alarming rate of rape and sexual assault against women, children and vulnerable people across the country”, sponsored by the Deputy Leader of the Senate, Bala Ibn Na’Allah (APC, Kebbi South).
Read also: 14-yr-old student in court for raping neighbour’s 7-yr-old daughter
In his lead debate on the motion, Senator Na’Allah noted the frightening increase in cases of sexual violence in the country, particularly rape, lamenting that the victims of this crime were usually children below the age of consent.
He also noted that perpetrators of rape and all sorts of sexual crimes were mostly familiar neighbours, employers of labour and close family members.
The politician further pointed out that the sexual offenders, whom he described as predators, constituted serious security threat to the larger segment of the society, which he also said were highly under reported in the media.
Na’Allah expressed serious concern that the vice of sexual perversion was fast spreading across the country, with both male and female gender as victims, especially in view of the poor prosecution and conviction being turned out by relevant authorities in the country.
He pointed out with concern that on daily basis, newspapers were awash with reports of rape and other sexual violence, noting that the situation portrayed the country in bad light, and that the problem was strange to both the nation’s cultural and religious orientation.
The lawmaker recalled that, in an effort to effectively tackle this problem, the 7th Senate had passed the Violent against Persons (Prohibition) VAPP Act 2015 while the 8th Senate passed the Sexual Offences in Tertiary Institutions Prohibition Bill 2016 to combat these perversions.
All the senators who made contributions, overwhelmingly supported the motion, stressing the need for the menace to be combated headlong because of its negative socio-psychological impact on the victims and the country in general.
Senator Ben Bruce, Biodun Olujimi, Enyinnaya Abaribe and Ali Wakili, while condemning the act of rape, advocated for promulgation of stringent laws that could eliminate the problem of rape and other forms of sexual perversions from the system.
They however, noted that one of the reasons the fight against sexual crimes had not yielded the desired result was because the law enforcement officers were usually accomplices in the crimes, calling for a change of attitude by the authorities involved.
By Ehisuan Odia…
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JOHNSON PETER
May 23, 2017 at 5:47 pm
Nigeria should not be like India where high cases of rape is being mentioned on daily basis, say no to rape.
Anita Kingsley
May 23, 2017 at 5:48 pm
Sexual abuse cases should go with death sentence once anyone is found guilty of it. Once there’s death attached to it, everyone will run from it
seyi jelili
May 23, 2017 at 5:54 pm
I support you my fellow lady. Those he goats who can’t control their penis should be get killed .
yanju omotodun
May 23, 2017 at 5:59 pm
And those she goats who can’t cover up their vagina properly should be killed too. Indecent exposure of their bodies can make man uncontrollable though I am not in any way saying man should not control themselves too.
Animashaun Ayodeji
May 23, 2017 at 6:22 pm
My brother rape starts from the mind, if a man wants to naked any lady who’s well covered up from head to toe, he will in his mind and also imagine different things he’d like to do with the lady and this is the same thing with ladies too, I’ve had an experience where a female friend talked to me about her crush and things she’d like to do to him, do you think if such lady sees the opportunity to be left alone with the crush, won’t she misbehave? Let ladies dress anyhow they want, disciplined men will not be moved. You have to train yourself to do the right things and develop your mind to ignore things that can bring shame to you. I’m neither supporting the ladies nor queuing behind the men, but my point is there’s no excuse whatsoever that will make one involve oneself in rape or sexual violations, except the person is under duress(which will be properly verified and interpreted by the court of law)..
Animashaun Ayodeji
May 23, 2017 at 6:03 pm
You need to be properly educated on rape and sex abuse, this is not particular to men alone, ladies too abuse and rape men, but we don’t get to see the cases in the news because our society frowns against it. If it is wrong to forcefully have sex with ladies, so it is to forcefully have sex with men, if it is wrong to tap a lady’s buttocks, it is also wrong to tap a man’s buttocks, but when the man report, they look at him like he’s insane, and when the lady report, you will listen to all kind things to back the lady up that the man was wrong to have done that.
Abeni Adebisi
May 23, 2017 at 6:09 pm
Animashaun, I honestly agree with you. I think this case is a societal issue, the society has made us believe that only ladies can be sexually violated and only the female gender can be raped, hence, silencing the male victims from not speaking up. If any man summons the courage to frown or speak up against how a lady lured him to have sex with her against his will, the society will turn such man to a subject of ridicule, which is not supposed to be. The Nigeria government needs to start encouraging men to report sexual abuse and rape cases too, then you will all realize there are thousands of men suffering in silence.