By VICTORIA OJEME
ABUJA—Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajia Zainab Maina, said yesterday that the 42 students allegedly raped by armed robbers on the Lagos-Benin expressway in Ogun State has failed to provide information strong enough to prosecute the culprits.
She said officials of Enugu State Ministry of Women Affairs were disappointed when they got to the residence of the victims but were unable to get the necessary information due to fear of stigmatization.
“There isn’t much anybody can do, if the victims are scared of coming out to say they have been raped,” the minister said.
She revealed that sexual violence ranked second among violation, adding that rape had taken the front burner in recent times, which is frequently targeted at female victims, ranging from children of under five years of age to the elderly and widows of ages 60 years and above.
Describing the various rape cases as not only barbaric, callous and inhuman, she said the incidences were highly unacceptable and called on the National Assembly to re-visit the Domestication of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women, CEDAW, to protect women and girls in the country.
She also called on law enforcement agents to properly investigate rape cases. lacked sufficient information to warrant arrest of culprits.
She noted that absence of legal framework and mechanisms aimed at reducing the prevalence of violence and holding perpetrators of violent acts accountable was the main reason cases of rape were on the increase in the country.
SOURCE: Vanguard Newspaper, 11 April 2012. http://www.vanguardngr.com/
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