Bauchi justice ministry secures 6 rape convictions

The Bauchi State Solicitor General and Permanent Secretary Ministry of justice, Aliyu Bin Idris (Esq) has disclosed that the ministry has so far secured six convictions of life imprisonment on rape cases with another 18 cases pending in courts.

Idris who made this known during a capacity building training for key stakeholders in the fight against sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) in Bauchi organized by ASHH Foundation in collaboration with Action Aid and Global affairs Canada, with participants drawn from the police , Civil Defence Corps, medical doctors, ministry of justice, other MDAs, CSOs and the Media.

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He give a breakdown of the convictions, saying “The Court of Appeal had affirmed the judgement in the case of
(1) Shamsuddeen Adamu A.k.a Duna vs State CA/J/76/C/2020 Convicted for Rape and Sentenced to Lifetime Imprisonment.
(2) Abbas Usman A.k.a Gero v. State CA/J/75/C/ 2020
Convicted for the offence of Rape and Sentenced to Life Imprisonment and (3) Al-Amin Yunusa A.k.a Maka v. State CA/18/C/2020 Convicted for the Offence of Rape and also Sentenced to Life Imprisonment.

He further disclosed that the High Court had also passed judgement on the following convicts:
(1) State vs Salisu Haruna BA/45/C/2018 Convicted for Attempted Rape and Act of gross Indecency
(2) State vs AbdulKarim Sani BA/51/C/2018 Attempted Rape and Act of Gross Indecency and
(3) State vs Shamsudeen Adamu & 2 Others BA/23/C/2018 Convicted for Rape, sentenced to lifetime imprisonments.

He also reveals that 18 pending rape cases are now ongoing in court and that 2 more will be forwarded to the ministry on Monday 26th October, 2020 for legal advice.

On her part, the General Management of rape cases and state chairperson of International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), Fatima Abubakar enumerated some key responsibilities of community in assisting the police and courts towards prosecuting offenders, “Communities should be educated on the need to report such cases as soon as it happens and also not to tamper with anything on the body of the victim until when all evidence are established by the authorities.”