Ibrahim Ibrahim
Jigawa State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice Bello Abdulkadir Fanini has raised concern over the societal stigmatization of rape victims, which hinders the prosecution process of the suspects.
Fanini stated this while reacting on the recent rape cases struck out by the Jigawa State high court over the failure of the victims to appear before the court of law to testify the incident.
It was reported that about four rape cases were recently struck out under Section 392(4) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) after several adjournments without presenting witnesses.
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According to him” In the last two weeks, three of our cases struck out by the court and the fourth one was discharged and acquainted and in all the cases the judges blame the prosecution for not proving the cases beyond reasonable doubt”
“One of the cases is a case of rape of a 14-year-old girl, the incident happened in 2022 when the parents go to the police station and complained, but unfortunately when the case came off they refused to come to the court for the hearing, they failed to show up to give evidence and testified, they said the lady got a suitor and they want to marry her so they don’t want anything that will tarnish the image and will affect that marriage. Because of that, they did not come to testify and after five adjournments approved by the law the case was struck out”
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”The other cases are for armed robbery and rape where the main suspects have jumped the bail and victims said they will not come to court to testify against the third dependent whose name was mentioned by the primary suspects”.
“And the only evidence we have is a statement by the dependent who has jumped bail. Therefore the court has no option but to declare that we did not prove our case beyond reasonable doubt, and there, the suspect was discharged and acquitted”.
Hon. Fanini noted that, generally, these are the issues affecting society, and we need to address them generally in the society.
“This problem is actually the problem of our society. It tells who we are; we don’t accept victims of rape. We stigmatize them; the situation where parents are apprehensive that if she comes out to testify before the court, she will be stigmatised and will not be married”.
“I would like to call on our society to stop stigmatizing victims of violence against persons. It’s an accident that happened. They need to sympathize if these situations continue and courts continue to discharge the suspects; therefore, society is helping in allowing the suspects to continue with their crimes.
He, therefore, called all relevant stakeholders to advocate for the end of the stigmatization of victims and stop being apprehensive to come out and testify on the case.
“Society must come together and rally around to stop the menace; otherwise, we are causing great harm to our society.
He, therefore, advised courts to exercise their discretion judiciously; He said presently, the Ministry of Justice has over 300 pending cases where the dependents are nowhere to be found.
Hon. Fanini said in line with the present administration under Governor Umar Namadi, the Protecting the Lives and Properties committee was constituted and headed by the chief judge himself, and the term of reference is to look at the laws and their implementation and see their effectiveness from judiciary or prosecution.
The committee will work to ensure speedy dispensation of justice