BENIN CITY— Edo State Governor Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has asserted that the right of the girl- child and women should be protected through appropriate legislation and swift judicial process.

Speaking while playing host to the leadership of the Edo State chapter of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) who paid him a courtesy visit at the Government House, Benin City, Tuesday, expressed dismay at the way innocent children were being abused by adults who appear to have metal insanity.

He said, “I also want to commend you for recognizing that we won’t do enough if what we do is to lament child abuse, defilement, rape and all of those violent crimes that are particularly targeted at women. And the way to go about it is to go beyond lamenting it and fighting it in court. Because we are in a democracy, we can’t take cutlass and kill rapists, but we can drag them to court, prayerfully secure conviction and send them to prison. The number of rape cases has been on the increase, including the number of defilement of children which is totally unacceptable. And I am not sure anybody can really explain why these and other vices are on the increase. Maybe the level of lunatics that have not been formally declared lunatics are everywhere because I think it takes a lunatic at 40, 50, 60, 70 years old to look at a baby under two, three, four, five, 10 years and defy her. Those are not normal people and we need to put them out of circulation by sending them to prison.”

Oshiomhole further said, “The Attorney General told me of your request, we obliged and I am glad that you are taking full advantage of it to ensure proper prosecution. I think we also decided to amend the law on rape or and defilement to prescribe much stiffer penalties when I was told that the penalty was so mild that it doesn’t serve as a sufficient deterrent. We have to push it to ensure the house does it quickly.”

Reacting to the law on prohibition of violence against persons which has been passed by the National Assembly, the Governor said, “If the law is good enough, we will adopt but if it is not good enough we will reject it. If there are defects, we can strengthen it. That is the much I can say, but we have to look at the law and see whether it is appropriate for the people of Edo State, and if we need to strengthen it. So, thank you for what you are doing. We appreciate.”

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Decrying the delay in the dispensation of justice which, he observed, was partly responsible for the rising profile of the crime against women and children. He noted, “I do hope that some other time, when we have more time, we can have a more detailed conversation about these cases you are prosecuting because part of the challenge of the Nigerian condition is that people are happy to tell you, ‘charge us to court, take me to court’ because they believe they will be there for the next ten years. We want to see how we can work together to convince the Chief Judge to set up special courts or assign some judges to dedicate their time to hearing and deciding on cases involving rape, defilement and all kinds of crimes against women and against children. That way, we will be able to ensure that within a year or within six months, from the beginning of the trial to the end, once they have all the evidence, we can complete a prosecution. So, unless people begin to fall, nobody will take you seriously. So, when we begin to send rapists to prison, the more number we send, it will be a more potent message to would-be rapists that if they want their freedom, they should respect women, they should not violate the right of the child. They should behave responsibly.”

Speaking earlier, the Edo State Chairperson of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) Mrs. Maria Edeko said they had visited the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice and requested for a fiat to directly prosecute sexual offences.

She said, “When we came on board, we visited the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice that we needed a fiat to directly prosecute sexual offences, and he was gracious. He gave us 20 cases that we are currently handling on behalf of the Attorney General in the State, pro bono.”

She disclosed that the organization has various committees including alternative dispute resolution committee and they make efforts to bring families together, adding “Every day the phone rings. When a woman is quarreling with her husband and she is angry for that moment, she wants to run to FIDA. We help to bring families together not to scatter families. In the heat of the moment, we allow the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee to engage them because the same woman is going to come back tomorrow to tell you all is now well. So, we are wise to ensure that peaceful resolution of dispute is a better option.”

During her request for the domestication of a bill on the Prohibition of Violence Against Persons, she said, “We have a bill, the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act before the House of Assembly for domestication. It came into being in 2015. It is a very promising legislation. We will ask to accelerate it as an executive law so that it will be added to your score sheet by the time you are leaving office.”