Sokoto State Hisbah Commission on Wednesday said it recorded 155 rape cases in six months, adding that it mostly involved young girls and teenagers between the ages of 5 and 16.
The Commandant of the Commission, Dr Adamu Kasarawa, who disclosed this said the cases were recorded from January to June, 2020.
He was speaking at a capacity building programme for ‘Male Advocates and Champions against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence” organised by Sultan Foundation for Peace and Development in Sokoto.
Kasarawa added: ”We recorded 20 cases of child deliveries, 35 cases linked to traditional institutions attempts for settlement and 31 cases of withdrawals by victims families.”
The commandant also recalled that the commission recorded 606 cases of sexual assaults, including cases of illegal camping of young girls, sexual exploitation and sodomy.
He added that the offenders cut across all calibre of people in the society, including politicians, traditional rulers, clerics, businessmen and women.
Kasarawa observed that poverty and greed has made sexual exploitation more rampant in the state just as he decried interference with legal processes as one of the major challenges in prosecuting rape cases.
“I think anything that has to do with rape, politicians and traditional leaders should step aside as issues of interests should not be there because it is a capital offence.”
”When offenders were being punished accordingly, it will serve as deterrent to people, and make them go back to their senses.”
The Commissioner for Women and Children Affairs in Sokoto state, Hajia Kulu Sifawa, urged more support toward domestication of child protection laws.
She stressed the commitment of the ministry to the wellbeing of women and children.
The Sultan Foundation Project Officer, Alhaji Musa Galadanchi, said the foundation had engaged Islamic scholars and traditional institutions on ways to reduce cases of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in line with the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative (SI) project in Sokoto State.
Author:Kehinde Abdulsalam
