Police seek special courts for rape

The police are advocating a speedy establishment of special courts to handle rape cases.

Speaking at a meeting with Tony Ojukwu, executive secretary of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Ibrahim Lamorde, acting inspector-general force intelligence, said special courts would ensure privacy for survivors and encourage them to speak out freely when they present their cases for hearing.

Lamorde said there is a need to check the “threshold of dealing with rape cases which are usually delayed due to the ambiguity surrounding the evidence to prove such cases.”

According to him, delay in justice has psychological impact on survivors which emboldens the perpetrators.

The AIG said police officers trained in dealing with rape cases should stay on their beat for at least three years to ensure continuity in capacity to share their knowledge with other officers.

On his part, Ojukwu said it has become imperative to activate the bi-monthly meeting between the commission and the police.

Ojukwu said the meeting would focus on dealing with all human rights cases which deserve urgent attention from the police, especially cases of sexual and gender-based violence “which is now a pandemic.”

“The commission’s work to effectively discharge its mandate in dealing with certain violations cannot be complete without relating with the police, we need the police to coordinate timely response to save lives,” the executive secretary was quoted as saying in a statement.

“A crop of professional police officers dealing with Human Rights and SGBV can provide accurate data on SGBV cases.

“Data is key in addressing these cases because it will help us to get a rundown of cases across the country by knowing how many cases we have at hand; how many are prosecuted and so on.”

In June, Mohammed Adamu, inspector-general of police (IGP), said 717 rape cases were recorded between January and May.

Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation (AGF), said there are plans to establish special courts for the speedy trial of rape cases.