The First Lady of Edo State and chairman Edo State Gender Based Violence management committee, (Edo-GBV), Mrs. Betsy Obaseki, has said that the state government will not accept out-of-court settlement from persons accused of rape and other gender-based violence crimes.
Mrs. Obaseki, who stated this in Benin, the state capital, said government will ensure that enablers of sexual predators are prosecuted so as to reduce gender-based violence in the state.
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“Out of court settlement channel is not an option in rape case. If they could prosecute armed robbers, why would they prosecute sexual predators who make live unsafe for citizens.
“In as much as rape is a crime against person, it is also crimes against the state. When such crimes are committed whether the victims like it or not, the state will seek prosecution as the onus falls on the state to protect its citizens. there is no option of out-of-court settlement,” Mrs. Obaseki said.
She said the recent move by the state government is coming in the wake of a recent judgement in which a 57-year-old man was convicted for 14 years for raping a 7-year-old girl.
She also warned other perpetrators to discontinue from the acts, adding that there is no hiding place for any violator as the law would treat everyone found guilty in the same way no matter their influence in the society.
“We have made our law to include that whoever comes to plead for an accused will join in the case with the accused. If you come to me to beg because I am the chairman of the committee, I will call for the chief security officer to arrest or grab you no matter how highly placed the person is,” she said.
On his part, the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Wole Iyamu, said the ministry has a lot of gender-based cases in the pipeline to act on.
“We are not just going after those who commits the crimes but we are going after their enablers; those who come to plead with us,” Iyamu said.
