News coming from ekiti in Nigeria reported that no fewer than
20 persons accused of raping underage girls have been prosecuted and convicted
in various courts of law in Ekiti State in the last one year. The Chairman of
the state chapter of International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), Mrs
Funke Anoma, disclosed this on Thursday at the commencement of the 2017 Annual
Law Week of the body in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.
The Ekiti FIDA Annual Law Week, themed: “The Role of
Stakeholders in the 21st Century Childcare,” had guest speakers which include
three Senior Advocates, Mallam Yusuf Alli, Mr Ifedayo Adedipe and Mr John
Baiyeshea. Mrs Anoma explained that FIDA is poised to tackle incidences of
rape, sexual abuse of minors and women and all forms of violence noting that
babies are not exempted from the scourge of rape in the state. “There are gross
exploitation of women and children, with more internally displaced children
everywhere you turn to, and scary social media crimes among our youths reflecting
in more child offenders. “We have been doing our best to protect rights of
women. We are currently prosecuting so many accused persons for gender based
violence and sexual assault.
“We are indeed happy that we are gradually overcoming the
challenge of stigmatization because we have devised ways to protect the
identities of victims. We used to keep their identities with high level of
secrecy. Sensitization has helped to bring out victims to report to us or
proper action and we are making progress. “Some of them were even bold to
testify in courts because we now have a family court which was a special court
handling such matters,” she added.
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