FCT Secured Only One Conviction Out Of 444 Cases Of Sexual Offences

The Desk Officer of Federal Capital Territory, Sexual and Gender Based Violence Response, Ngozi Ike, has lamented the slow pace of trials and convictions of suspected sex offenders by the Judiciary.

She said this at a media dialogue on ‘Ethical reporting and advocacy to eliminate violence against women and girls in the Federal Capital Territory.

The event was organized by Spotlight Initiative Nigeria.

According to her, out of 444 cases of sexual offences recorded in the FCT, only one conviction has been made so far.

She said there is therefore the need for the establishment of special courts to hasten trial of such cases.

She said, “We lack special courts in Nigeria to hear such delicate cases. When you take these cases to the regular courts, they linger for a long period of time and this is not good at all.

“If we can push for the establishment of special courts that will preside over sexual and domestic violence cases, it will give long way in according justice to survivors.

“We did it during the outbreak office the COVID-19 pandemic and within a short period of time, mobile courts were set up to try violators of the COVID-19 guidelines and we can do it for this purpose too”.

Also speaking, the Director, National Orientation Agency, FCT, Tanko Mary, said poor commitment of security agencies to residence, as well as stigmatization of survivors pose a major threat to curbing the rise of gender based violence, especially against women and girls.

“We have few police presence in some communities, poor commitment of security agencies and stigmatization of survivors has been a big challenge to our fight against gender based violence.

“Most residents in the communities around do not have trust in the security agencies. There is a community where a girl was raped, but the community heads kept her hidden, saying that it could affect her chances of getting married. So we have issues like this often,” she said.

Speaking further, Mary stated that issues of violence are also rampant in communities where drug abuse is tolerated.

The Protection Officer, United Nations Children’s Fund, Tochie Odele, in her presentation, noted that one in every four girls have experienced sexual violence. This, according to her, has become worse as a result of the Coronavirus locked down.

She lamented that it was quite unfortunate that 19 percent of girl-child are married before they get to the age of 15.

“Majority of these girls experience violence at home and it is rarely an isolated incident. Most of the girls that are raped are people that are either close to them or well known to them.

“Most of the girls don’t report their abuse because they are scared causing problems and stigmatization, also, girls with disabilities are twice likely to experience violence of any form,” she said.

Odele, speaking further, noted that most of the states in the northern part of the country were yet to domesticate the Child Right Acts.