The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) on Monday agreed to collaborate in the fight against rape and other Sexual and Gender- Based Violence.
The agreement was made during a working visit to the Acting Inspector General Force Intelligence, Ibrahim Lamorde by the Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Tony Ojukwu in Abuja .
They agreed to set modalities in place to strengthen their collaboration in dealing with cases of rape and other Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) brought before them.
Ojukwu said that, it has become imperative to activate the Bi-monthly meeting between the Commission and the Police.
He stated that this meeting would be well focused to deal with all human rights cases which deserve urgent attention from the police especially cases of SGBV which is now a pandemic.
“The Commission’s work to effectively discharge its mandate in dealing with certain violations cannot be complete without relating with the police.
” We need the police to coordinate timely response to save lives”.
” There is an urgent need to build the capacity of Human Rights and Gender Desk Officers in all the Police Commands across the country, to ensure professionalism and efficiency in dealing with numerous cases generally and rape/SGBV cases in particular” he said.
He noted that most survivors of rape are deflated in spirit on arrival to make complaints at the police station.
This, he attributed to the unprofessional conducts in handling the cases by police officers who stigmatise survivors through dismissive comments, describing it as highly unacceptable.
” A crop of professional police officers dealing with Human Rights and SGBV can provide accurate data on SGBV cases.
“ Data is key in addressing these cases because it will help us to get a rundown of cases across the country by knowing how many cases we have at hand; how many are prosecuted and so on” Ojukwu stated.
Responding, Lamorde commended the executive secretary for the visit, noting that stigmatisation makes rape cases thrive and that it needs to be addressed from the point where survivors report the incident to the police.
He said officers need to understand the magnitude of the problem they create when they discourage survivors due to their unprofessional conduct.
” A special court should be created to ensure accelerated hearing, provide enabling environment to ensure privacy for survivors and encourage them to speak out freely when they present their cases during hearing.
” There should be a need to check the threshold of dealing with rape cases which are usually delayed due to the ambiguity surrounding the evidence to prove such cases.
” Delay in justice has psychological impact on survivors which emboldens the perpetrators” he added.
Lamorde reiterated the importance of retaining professional police officers trained in dealing with rape cases to stay on their beat for at least three years.
This according to him was to ensure continuity in capacity to deal with cases as well as share knowledge with other officers on how to deal with such sensitive cases.
Source: NAN
