The rising cases of rape in Zamfara State: a collaborative approach.

The rising cases of rape have rightly captured the attention of Nigerians all over the country given media reports confirming such. It is on this basis that Zamfara Youth Charity Organization deemed it necessary to give its quota of support against the criminal act of rape.

Conscious of the fact that the same problem could have different circumstances depending on location, our Organization decided to act locally by collecting data & conducting a research on the incidence of rape in Zamfara State.

Thus, our Organization held an interview with the Hisbah Commission & Zamfara State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC). We also collected data from Zamfara State Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) & Ministry of Justice.

On a weekly basis over the next 3 weeks, we will do a post on the data collected & the analysis drawn from the data, starting today with the interview held with Hisbah Commission & NSCDC. After that, our Organization, in collaboration with Zamfara Circle & Zamfara Youth Must Survive, will organize a program on the incidence of rape in Zamfara State.

The program is set to bring together the different stakeholders from all the three arms of government (Executive, Legislature, & Judiciary) purposely to analyze & agree on the obstacles hindering prosecution of rape cases, unnatural offences, as well as the possible strategies to prevent the cases from occurring in the first place, with a view of implementing the solutions presented.

On 17th July, 2020, we had an interview with the Director of Operations of the Hisbah Commission. He remarked that it is important to first of all understand the scope within which the Commission operates, which is that the Commission is only limited to investigation and presentation of its findings to court. The Commission is not a law enforcement body.

The Director also remarked that awareness of the nature of rape –its dangers, bodies to contact after its occurrence etc– on the part of our communities is highly important, & collaboration between the Commission & NGOs is essential in creating the needed awareness. Some of the cases the Commission handled include the following;

There was a small girl engaged in petty trading who, unfortunately, had a customer that eventually raped her. This customer was over 50 years old, & used economic incentive of paying above usual price for her products to lure her in an uncompleted building wherein he raped her.

In 2019, there was a case of a man that raped a school girl after luring her to himself using an economic incentive of giving her money; a meagre 50 naira to be exact. Another case occurred this year in an area named Unguwar Gwaza in Gusau where a married man saw a school girl crying on the street. He asked her what the problem was & she told him she had no school books & was sent back home from school. Instead being a responsible man by providing her what she lacks, he was cruel enough to give her 500 naira, which made her trust him, & he used that opportunity to rape her. The case is still being tried in court.

On 10th July this year, a case was brought to the Commission where a mother reported her husband sexually abusing their daughter, & the abuse has led to the daughter experiencing great difficulty in urinating. She cries every time she has to urinate. These are some of the cases the Commission has dealt with, even though there are many others.

The most contributing factors enabling rape, according to the Director, are economic incentives, immorality on the part of culprits, & ritual objectives. He added that most of the culprits are in their 40s & above, while most of the victims are children. He concluded by suggesting to parents to stop turning their children into petty traders. Also, there should be continuous Jumuat Huduba (Sermons) from religious scholars on the danger of rape and parental negligence.

In July this year, we held an interview with the Public Relations Officer (PRO), Zamfara State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence (NSCDC). The PRO first remarked that cases of rape are mainly handled by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) & Hisbah Commission.

There were seven cases of rape (3 males/4 females) with the Command as at last year, & all of the victims were minors except for one. The case files are with the Ministry of Justice, & the cases are still in court.

In conclusion, it is worth noting that there are more unreported cases of rape than there are reported ones, & this was confirmed by the Hisbah Commission. We call on all stakeholders to put in more effort in curbing the menace of the criminal act of rape.

In line with the objective we streamlined of making Zamfara State great, parents, victims, & any third party with detailed knowledge of these happenings must play a role to break silence at the earliest possible time.

The Hisbah Commission, Police & other security & non-security agencies are our friends and are ever ready to assist us curb the menace of rape and sanitize the society..... FREE OF CHARGE.

Let us do this together!!!

It is a collective responsibility!!!

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So Sharia law could not stop it

Stop this folly and pretest we all know Islam approves of it.