Cov/USMAN MZ, Jigawa
Jigawa State Command of the Nigeria Police Force says about 35 little girls are violently raped by adults from January to April of this year.
The state commissioner of police Usman Sule Gwamna disclosed this shortly after an expanded state security meeting at the sir Ahmadu Bello Hall in Dutse.
Usman Sule Gwamna said rape cases top the list of criminal activities being perpetuated in the state.
He lamented that all of the 35 rape survivors were found to be toddlers, some as young as three years old.
According to him, parents have to be extra vigilant on movements of their wards to prevent them from potential phidophiles.
The commissioner of police however said the lingering judicial strike action embarked upon by the union had made the police detention cells to be conjested with criminals waiting for trials at the courts.
It could be recalled that recently, the Jigawa State Governor Alhaji Badaru Abubakar has signed in to law the violence against persons prohibition bill with effect from Wednesday, 24th February 2021.
The signing of the law has brought to an end the controversy against the bill that some view as anti Islamic.
The assented bill stipulated death penality for rapists and kidnappers.
Speaking, the State Commissioner Of Justice, Barrister Musa Adamu Aliyu disclosed that Violence Against Persons Prohibition Law stipulates death penalty for rapists and compensation of not less than N500,000 to the convict.
He said the law was designed to give maximum protection to the vulnerable group in the society.
According to him the act is domesticated and ensured it is inline with the Shari’a law and also does not contradict with the cultural belief and practices of the people of the state before its signing to law.
He noted that the law hah prescribed death sentence to rapists, abductors and Kidnappers with other three optional punishment, depending on the circumstances and judge discretion.
”If the rapist infected the victim with HIV the Judge has no option than to pass death sentence particularly if the accused person has knowledge of his HIV status.
“The law also stipulated 16 year as age of consent, while any illegal sexual intercourse through the vagina, anus or mouth of either a boy or girl fall in the category of rape and the offender would be treated as such in according to the law” he stated.
Mr Sule Gomna said the meeting enabled stakeholders to deliberate and profer solutions to security challenges, rape and other criminal activities such as culpable homicide and sodomy have taken the front burner in incidences of such across the state.
Earlier, the state governor Alhaji Badaru Abubakar said the security meeting would ensure all loopholes were being tightened to prevent any security breach during the forth coming sallah festivity across the state.
