RAPE AS AN ISSUE IN NIGERIA

Rape as an issue in Nigeria

Writer: Oladapo ifedayo

Date:19th  June 2020.

     In a country of 170 million ,where sexual assault is described as ‘endemic’, The Nigeria police department as been able to record 717 rape cases in five months, during the few months to e issue of rape as been a  rampant case in the society.

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    However in Nigeria, where a majority of cases of sexual violence go unreported, social media has brought the issue into the open.A majority of cases of sexual violence in Nigeria go unreported. This is due largely to fear on the part of the victim of being socially stigmatized or blamed. Ms. Ajie estimates that at least 2 million Nigerian girls experience sexual abuse annually and that only 28 per cent of rape cases are reported. Of those, only 12 per cent result in convictions.

Elsie Reed, founder of Delta Women, an organization that aims to empower and fight for the rights of women in Delta State, estimates that 80 per cent of Nigerian women have experienced some form of sexual harassment.

 According to the UN Women campaign against gender-based violence, Africa Unite, anywhere between 13 per cent and 45 per cent of women in sub-Saharan Africa experience assault by an “intimate partner during their lifetime.”

Africa Unite also reports that in Uganda, for example, an astonishing 59 per cent of women between the ages of 15 and 49 “have experienced physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime.”

   But Nigeria take it to the street to protest  about rape issues to create awareness for young individual who are sexually harassed ,There was a recent case of rape which lead out the government to take act on several rape/sexual molestation in Nigeria,The case was a case of a 22 year old girl who raped and bashed by the fire extinguisher in church

NEWS /NIGERIA

JusticeForUwa has been one of the hashtags trending on social media in the last week after Vera Uwaila Omosuwa, a 22-year-old student, died two days after she was reportedly raped in a church in the southern city of Benin.

"Children are dying, women are dying, enough is enough," Dorothy Njemanze, one of the protest organisers, was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

Njemanze said she and other campaigners were "watching every step of everything they [politicians] say and do on sexual based violence".

Nigeria's most senior policeman has ordered the immediate deployment of additional investigators to specialist gender violence desks, a police statement said on Tuesday.

"This is to strengthen and enhance the capacity of the units to respond to increasing challenges of sexual assaults and domestic/gender-based violence linked with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and other social ills within the country," it added.

  

Tough place to convict a rapist

In Nigeria, it is not uncommon for rape to go unreported.

Some victims and their families, fearing stigmatisation, police extortion and a lack of trust in the judicial process, choose not to report cases to the authorities.

There have also been instances where those brave enough to report are targeted with derogatory comments at the police station.

Sexual offences in Nigeria 2017. [ 2,279 reported cases of rape and indecent assault ],[ 1,164 reported cases of "unnatural offences" (ie anal sex) ],[ 0 convictions reported by police ],[ 1 state (out of 36) reported no cases of indecent assault ], Source: Source: Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, Image: A man strangling a woman - stock image

"They are either vilified for their dressing, being at the wrong place at the wrong time or accused of making up claims of rape," said Ms Ebe, who is now a social worker and runs a charity helping street children, people with disabilities and survivors of sexual abuse.

She often talks about her experiences in order to help other rape survivors. She says victims often find brick walls at the hospitals, police stations and courts where they are supposed to get justice.

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"The penalty for rape in Nigeria is up to 14 years in prison, but I have seen a judge sentence someone to just four years, with two years suspended, because he was young and had a life in front of him," she said.

"What about the victim whose life he adversely affected?"

Police accused of raping women

In 2019 in the capital Abuja, some women who were arrested during a police raid accused officers of raping them.

They said the police accused them of being sex workers and while they were at the police station, they were repeatedly raped by officers.

The police denied the accusations and the matter is currently in court.

Image captionTina, 16, was shot by a policeman in Lagos

"Such incidents don't reassure victims that the police station is where they can get help," their representative, Dorothy Njemanze, told the BBC.

No one knows exactly how many rapes take place in the West African state annually. The official Nigeria Bureau of Statistics said more than 2,200 cases of rape and indecent assault were reported in 2017.

But experts say the true number of rapes is likely to be much higher.

"We get at least six people coming in for cases of domestic violence per week," Ms Njemanze said. "During the coronavirus lockdown, we started receiving four to seven cases per day and 70% of them were related to rape."F

New laws not implemented

The results of a survey published by NOIPolls in July 2019 suggested that up to one in every three girls living in Nigeria could have experienced at least one form of sexual assault by the time they reach 25.

Recent laws have broadened the scope under which sexual offences can be penalised in Nigeria, making it easier to try suspects.

"Before now the part of the Nigerian constitution that deals with rape was in the criminal code and meant that cases had to be tried within two months or they would be statute barred [ineligible to be heard in a court], but that is no longer the case," Stephanie Ekpebulu, from a coalition of lawyers that does pro bono work with rape victims, told the BBC.