The Nigeria Police has said no fewer than 150 persons have been convicted of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) and children abuse cases between 2019 and 2020.
The Inspector General of Police (I-G), Mr Mohammed Adamu, stated this in Abuja at a high level multi agency consultative meeting on the implementation of the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act, 2015.
Adamu, represented by Mr Garba Umar, Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) InterPol, said that the police have more than 2,000 cases undergoing prosecution in various courts.
He said that the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act 2015 was signed into law to address cases of SGBV with its debilitating effects, especially on the vulnerable group.
The IGP said the legislation, given impetus by the concerted efforts of a coalition of Civil Rights Groups, scholars and law reform advocates, was intended to protect the dignity of the human person.
He said the legislation was also intended to ensure that perpetrators of violent crimes, especially rape, were brought to justice.
According to him, the successful implementation of the law will depend on the commitment of stakeholders to reinforce their various roles in the implementation process.
“As part of the efforts to ensure the enforcement and implementation of the act and other anti-legal instruments in addressing SGBV, the Force Gender Officer has been directed to regularly coordinate and collate SGBV data across commands and formations.
“The idea is for the force to have a near accurate data for cases of SGBV and violence Against Children (VAC).
“In a bid to enforce the recently passed Sexual Harassment Bill 2020, I have initiated actions to strengthen the gender desk across the various tertiary institutions in the country,” he said.
According to him, with the support of strategic partners, gender laboratory has been established at the Force Criminal Investigation Department for prompt analysis of SGBV and cases involving children.
He said the facility would be inaugurated in May and that the drafting and validation of SGBV training manual for Nigeria Police was currently ongoing.
In her remarks, Mrs Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, Director General, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), said that the meeting was to reemphasise the need for accurate data production in SGBV cases.
She expressed satisfaction over efforts by stakeholder to ensure the production of an annual report and called for alignment of data to ensure accuracy and uniformity.
“For the first time this year, we are going to produce an annual report and it is important that we align our data.
“In the past, we have always delegated our data reporting to third parties but it is important that we take ownership of our report.
“We have the opportunity to do that and I am excited by the commitment of our sister agencies to ensure that we have data we can rely upon,” she said.
She said NAPTIP was coming strongly from prevention angle, adding that issues of violence against persons were issues of economic needs.
According to her, the more people are empowered, the less accessible they are and the less vulnerable they become.
“We are focusing on empowering the vulnerable people hence, the need to spread our campaign in states to be able to partner with our sister agencies to deliver on our mandate,” she said.
NAN
