A senior advocate of Nigeria, Abimbola Akeredolu, said on Friday that “rape has assumed pandemic proportions in Nigeria”.
Akeredolu, speaking during a session at the recently concluded Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) conference in Lagos, stated that given this scenario, the approach to addressing it must be treated as “a marathon and not a sprint”.
She, however, noted that the rate of convictions were inadequate, saying that “the bane of lack of conviction in rape cases is the law”.
“Nigerian rape laws need to be reviewed to reflect current realities. The manner in which rape is presented puts consent in question. We need to revisit the issue of consent and make it clear,” Akeredolu said.
She stated that even in police stations, when rape is reported, the focus is on “what was she wearing” or “what were you doing there at night?”
Also speaking, Josephine Effah-Chukwuma, founder of Project Alert, noted that “whilst many people think that the issue is getting worse, it is actually awareness that is increasing”.
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“Now, as it is breaking everyone is seeing it,” she said.
Another panellist at the session, Sheikh Muhammad Nuruddden Lemu, a director at the Da’awah Institute of Nigeria and a trustee of the Islamic Education Trust, reminded the audience that “just like an asymptomatic social pandemic”, rape is under-reported in Nigeria.
Therefore, “when as a society we see one rape case, we should be prepared that we have another nineteen that are not reported”, Lemu said.
Titiloa Vivour-Adeniyi of the DSVRT said although “we are making progress” in the fight against domestic and sexual-based violence and “slowly breaking the culture of silence”, there is still a lot more to do.
She stated that the Directorate of Public Prosecution in the Lagos State Ministry of Justice “last year prosecuted over 600 cases”, and between last year and March this year secured “over 120 convictions varying from life imprisonment to 60 years, 25 years and the rest”.
She emphasised the need for the approach to treating rape cases to be “survivor-centred”, saying it was very important that “we are able to see things from the lenses of the survivor”.
Adeniyi also noted the importance of adopting a forensic approach in investigating rape matters – as is currently being rolled out in Lagos state – because “cases were won or lost at investigation stage”.
The panellists also highlighted the importance of the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act (“VAPP”), noting that it was important that states that were yet to domesticate the bill do so.
The VAPP expands and broadens the definition and ingredients that constitute rape. Amongst others, it provides that men and women can be raped and that vaginal penetration is not the only form of rape.
