Niger State Police Command on Friday raised the alarm that the number of rape cases in the state has been on the increase with the victims mostly between two and seven years old, just as the command has absolved itself of blames over the trend.
Niger State Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Mu’azu Zubairu, said that an average of four rape cases were being recorded every week and this put the number of reported cases across the state this fiscal year at not less than 100.
The police commissioner spoke at an advocacy workshop organised by the International Federation of Female Lawyers (FIDA) and the state’s Child Rights Agency in Minna.
He also disclosed that in one of such incidents, a 50-year-old man was arrested for having canal knowledge of a four-year-old girl.
“In another instance, a 25-year-old man raped a two-year-old girl and people expect the police to act instantly but it is not so because the police has no absolute powers beyond what we are doing to bring perpetrators to book”, the commissioner represented by the Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of Intelligence and Investigation, Alhaji Abubakar Shuaibu, said.
According to the police commissioner, “Most times people look up to the police in cases of rape but the police cannot act alone. The police arrests but does not prosecute. So invariably the police work side by side other relevant agencies to bring culprits to book”.
In one of the cases, the suspect was charged to court, he was found guilty and sentenced to seven years imprisonment without option of fine, but this has not changed anything much including cases of child abuse and other domestic violence which have also been on the increase.
The police commissioner, who blamed such abuses partly on the harsh economic situation in the country, said that the command recently arrested a Fulani man who killed his wife for calling him a criminal while a house wife took the life of her mate over a measure of garri even after the suspect had taken and eaten her share with her children.
“We now have more cases of divorce because the wife left in the house maltreats the children of divorced wife”, Zubairu said and therefore made a case for speedy investigation of rape and other related cases so that the culprits would be brought to justice without delay.
In an address, the wife of the state Governor, Dr. Amina Sani Bello, expressed satisfaction that Niger State was the first state in the northern part of the country to establish an agency for the protection of children and women.
Amina Bello assured that the state government would support the organization to perform the association’s statutory roles in serving as a voice to the voiceless, particularly women and children across the state.
Niger State chairperson of the FIDA, Hajia Maryam Jibo, challenged women and adolescent girls on the need to always speak out and not keeping quite when molested by rapists or their husbands.
While also cautioning housewives against allowing their children to hawk, especially at odd hours and along isolated areas, Hajia Jibo said that it has been discovered that some men lure the innocent girls with money and materials before perpetrating their evil deeds.