Despite the tough legal stance of the Jigawa State government on the rising cases of rape, the offence ranks among those at the top of the crime chart in the second quarter of the year in the state.
According to data released on Tuesday by the state police command, 55 cases of rape were recorded between January and July 2021, coming after fatal accidents, which topped the data with 138.
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Fifty cases of culpable homicide were recorded in the period under review followed by 39 cases of armed robbery; sudden unnatural death, (SUD), 36; kidnapping 19 cases reported to the police while unnatural offences are at the bottom of the crime chart.
Governor Muhammad Badaru Abubakar had in February signed into law the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Bill. The law prescribes life jail or death sentence for a rape convict and one who infects his victim with HIV.
It will be recalled that the immediate past commissioner of police of the command, now Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 6, Calabar, Usman Sule Gonna, had at a media parley in May, blamed the rising rape cases in Jigawa on parents’ negligence.