Punch Editorial
A nasty disclosure by the Gombe State Police Command that about 250 rape cases were reported between January and December 2020 exposes an awful, staggering sexual abuse narrative in the state. This development should naturally provoke a strong action from stakeholders and the state government in particular.
Painting a pathetic rape situation in the state, the Commissioner of Police, Shehu Maikudi, said some perpetrators were aged 50 and above. Bizarrely, the victims were minors, aged between three, five and six years. Some of the cases, said Maikudi, are pending in court. He added, “Most times, when an arrest is made, parents tend to wash off incriminating evidence. About 200 suspects have so far been taken to court.”
In one of the rape incidents in September last year, the police paraded one Sanusi Usman, 25, for alleged defilement of a 14-year-old girl. The suspect, said to have confessed to the crime, allegedly lured the girl to grind maize in his flat, held her hostage overnight and sexually assaulted her. The same month, a 13-year-old girl was raped by a 20-year-old farmer, Mamman Haruna, on her way to fetch firewood.
Curiously, the heartbreaking rape spree in the state is not new to the government. It stated last July that the issue of rape had gone past rhetoric to a point of action. It thus proposed the death penalty for rapists. The Secretary to the State Government, Ibrahim Njodi, had noted that the state was going to deal with the problem directly regarding rape. He said the governor was ready to implement death sentence for rape offenders.
Up to this point, it appears the government only played to the gallery as rape cases have not only surged in the state, but rapists also carry on their atrocious activities with impunity. According to the Executive Director, Care for Life, Placidus Peters, the state records about 12 cases every week and approximately 48 cases every month. This adds up to about 576 cases of rape occur in the state annually and only a few cases are reported because of victims’ fear of stigmatisation and the discouraging justice system.
For a state grappling with sexual crime and weak determination to curb the act, the state government ought not to delay any longer in domesticating the Child Rights Act, 17 years after it was passed. Legal consent to the Act will guarantee the rights of children as enshrined in both the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. The National Orientation Agency has noted that cases of defilement, especially of girls by adults, including other forms of abuse of children in the state, are stalled largely due to the non-domestication of the Act. The police linked the rape pandemic to either drug intake or ritual purposes, while the NOA said some of the cases were traceable to the selfish desire to satisfy an urge, including for fetish or diabolical reasons.
The victims are subjected to physical, psychological, physiological and emotional torture and it is the reason government should speedily step in to rescue them from the grip of rapists. It is the duty of government to protect citizens within the ambit of the constitution. Government needs to enforce stricter laws to punish rapists and try them speedily in special courts. After conviction, they should be named and shamed by publishing their names in a sex offenders’ register. Ekiti State has launched its own version of such a register.
To make the fight sweeping, the government should collaborate with teachers, religious and traditional rulers to curb the disgraceful act festering like a bad sore across many parts of the state. A group, Child Protection Advocates, says the rape epidemic in Gombe is becoming scary, lamenting that the victims’ parents would prefer them to suffer in silence than be subjected to ridicule by reporting the cases. Advocacy groups should step in to enlighten the parents about how to report rape cases while the government should encourage victims to speak out by promptly getting justice for them.
The criminal justice system has been failing victims of rape for a long time. The Gombe State Government should emulate India, which in 2013 introduced tough rape laws after the brutal gang rape and murder of a student on a Delhi bus. The law prescribes death penalty in cases of rape leading to death or leaving the victim in a critical state. It also increases the minimum sentence for gang rape, rape of a minor, rape by police officers or an influential person from 10 to 20 years, with the possibility of an extension to life sentence without parole. In Pakistan, the new anti-rape law favours special courts for the speedy trial of rape suspects and chemical castration of serial rapists. So much needs to be done, especially through education, to reduce the number of rapes and sexual assaults that take place in the country.