… task Kano govt on justice for rape survivors
Gender rights activists have called for stringent penalties against rape and sexual abuse towards women and girls in Nigeria.
The call is coming on the heels of an investigative report by Premium Times which exposed that there is a spike in rape cases in Kano state, obstacles to justice for victims and the state’s failure to domesticate Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act.
Child and gender rights advocate Lemmy Ughegbe led the call for strict action against rape during an anti-corruption radio programme, PUBLIC CONSCIENCE, produced by PRIMORG, on Wednesday, 24 April 2024, in Abuja.
Ughegbe emphasized that Nigerian society and government at all levels need to take serious steps in protecting the rights of children, women, and girls from rape by ensuring perpetrators of sexual offences are severely punished.
He noted that while getting justice for victims of rape remains a daunting task due to the shortcomings of the system, “stringent punishment for rape offences will go a very long way in deterring citizens from going into such unwholesome acts.
Ughegbe disclosed that education and creation of awareness remain the biggest vaccine to fighting rape and sexual gender-based violence, adding that “if across the country (Nigeria) fifty percent of rape offenders are brought to book, people will be discouraged from involvement in such evil act.
“There’s a lot of rhetoric about tackling gender-based violence where there are perpetrators. Even in the few reported cases, what steps do government and government agencies take to ensure that even the perpetrator is brought to justice? When a victim or a survivor manages to break the silence and speak out, what is done? Does she get justice?
“More often than not, justice is elusive because most times the police, the community heads, different people will put pressure on the victim to either drop the matter or the Police will help to bungle the matter, in such a way that the survivor is re-traumatized.
“We (Nigerians) need to purge ourselves of the evil of wanting to protect perpetrators of rape; do you know the dangers of victims not getting justice? And not being subjected to psychotherapy. You need a support system. Section 39 of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act talks about psychotherapy. But victims are left on their own to heal, and some of them don’t heal.
“Rape is five minutes of pleasure for that sick perpetrator, but it is a lifetime of trauma for the victim, Ughegbe lamented.
He knocked the Kano state government for lacking commitment to reduce the scourge of rape in the state while faulting the actions and inactions of some officers of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) that handle rape cases.
On her part, recovery coach and therapeutic counsellor Dr. Ibadat Ranti Lawal insisted that Nigeria is not a lawless society; hence “federal and state governments must tackle rape scourge and ensure stricter consequence.” She urged the Kano state government to deal decisively with those indicted in several reported cases of rape in the state.
Lawal also prescribed life sentences for rapists, stressing that “the system must make people scapegoats to reduce the incidence of sexual gender-based violence.”
She called on the government to set up counselling centers in public hospitals across the country to help survivors of rape while encouraging rape victims to “speak up and break the culture of silence.”
“A lot of the victims have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. And if care is not taken, it progresses to the extent they want to take their lives. But when they get attention or support from their family and professional bodies, they can live an everyday life.
“That is why we’re advocating for the government to please in most of our hospitals to have sections for counselling where the victims, the survivors, they can be able to go and seek help, either by the family taking them or from the law enforcement agency or even from the referral centers,” Lawal stated.
Earlier, investigative journalist Mariya Shuaibu Suleiman called on the Kano state government to take action on the Premium Times investigation exposing the spike in rape cases in the state.
She revealed that a lot of young women have been victims of rape in many reported cases in Kano state but have unfortunately been unable to get justice.
Suleiman said the Police in Kano were yet to take action against people indicted by the report, adding that the state government was aware of the extent of sexual gender-based violence in the state.
Public Conscience is a syndicated weekly anti-corruption radio program PRIMORG uses to draw government and citizens’ attention to corruption and integrity issues in Nigeria.
The program has the support of the MacArthur Foundation.