Sokoto Hisbah records 155 rape cases

The Sokoto State Hisbah Commission says it recorded 155 rape cases in six months involving young girls and teenagers between the ages of five and 16.

The Commandant, Dr Adamu Kasarawa, who disclosed this, on Wednesday, said the cases were recorded from January to June this year.

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He was speaking at a capacity building programme for ‘Male Advocates and Champions Against Sexual and Gender Based Violence’ organised by the Sultan Foundation for Peace and Development in Sokoto.

Kasarawa added: “We recorded 20 cases of child deliveries, 35 cases linked to traditional institutions’ attempts for settlement, and 31 cases of withdrawals by victims’ families.”

The commandant, who recalled that the commission recorded 606 cases of sexual assault, said the cases included illegal camping of young girls, sexual exploitation and sodomy.

He added that the offenders cut across different calibre of people in the society, including politicians, traditional rulers, clerics, businessmen and women.

Kasarawa observed that poverty and greed had made sexual exploitation very rampant in the state, and decried interference with legal processes as one of the major challenges in prosecuting rape cases.

He stressed that, “I think anything that has to do with rape, politicians and traditional leaders should step aside as issues of interests should not be there because it is a capital offense.”

He further said, “When offenders are being punished accordingly, it will serve as deterrent to the people, and make them to go back to their senses.”

The Commissioner for Women and Children Affairs in the state, Hajiya Kulu Sifawa, urged more support toward domestication of child protection laws.

The Sultan Foundation Project Officer, Alhaji Musa Galadanchi said the foundation had engaged Islamic scholars and traditional institutions on ways to reduce cases of Gender Based Violence (GBV) in line with the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative (SI) project in Sokoto State.