The Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Mohammed Adamu has said it recorded 717 rape incidents in 5-months.
IGP Adamu disclosed this after a meeting with President Buhari on Monday on issues of rape and gender-based violence. According to the Nation, he was accompanied by Minister of Women Development, Dame Pauline Tallen and the Minister for Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
“It has come to the public knowledge now that because of the COVID-19 restrictions, we have a surge in cases of rape and gender-based violence. These are cases that are now coming up, but we want to let members of the public know that, rape and gender-based violence has been there.
“The law enforcement agents have been dealing with this cases, members of the public are not aware of the actions that the law enforcement agents have been taking.
“The Nigeria Police, so far from January to May 2020, we have recorded about 717 rape incidents that were reported across the country, about 799 suspects have been arrested, 631 cases conclusively investigated and charged to court and 52 cases are left and under investigation.
“It is a very wicked offense, it is very wicked of an individual to engage and rape or defilement and there are a lot of causes; some are doing it for ritual purposes, some are doing it for ritual purposes, some are doing it because they are within the family and they see the victims and have the urge to go into it and do it. But such people should not be allowed to go scot-free.
“The police and other security agencies and other non-governmental organisations have been collaborating, to see to it that these cases of rape and gender-based violence are dealt with.
“The government has taken the matter to another level now because of the surge we have noticed. I will call on every Nigerian that has or comes across any victim of sexual offenses or rape or gender-based violence, to quickly report to enforcement agents because keeping it without reporting it will give room for the perpetrators to continue to commit more offenses.
“The government has taken the matter to another level now because of the surge we have noticed. So just to tell you that government is doing something seriously to curtailed this type of offense,” Adamu concluded.
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