RAPES: Lagos Records 14,000 Cases Of Sexual Violence
—Director of the Office of Public Defender, Mrs. Omotola Rotimi who made the disclosure while speaking at the 2015 Press Week organised by the Lagos State Governor’s Office Correspondents, (LAGOCO), expressed worry about the growing menace in the society.
She tasked the media to uphold the ethics of privacy and confidentiality while reporting sexual violence issues, saying most victims are exposed to stigmitisation through exposure by the media.
According to her, the OPD handled about 70 cases of child defilement this year alone while no fewer than 406 rape cases were reported between January and September this year.
“ A total of rape cases handled by OPD from January to September 2015 is 406 while 1,143 of such cases were treated from 2007 till date.
“On physical child abuse, we recorded 138 cases between January and September 2015 while a total of 1,521 cases were also treated by OPD from 2007,” Rotimi said.
According to her, 2,469 children were taken to government custody due to sexual assault and other related issues while 813 of such children were handled this year alone.
The OPD boss, who appealed to the media professionals to help reduce stigmitisation of the victims by hiding their identity, also said that agency recorded 1,889 cases of sexual abuse since 2007.
According to her, 455 of the sexual assault cases were reported this year alone.
“While we urge everyone to stand up against sexual and domestic violence, OPD recorded 2,166 cases of domestic violence and 348 of the cases were reported this year alone. As for other matrimonial issues, we have 658 cases from January to September and 1,791 since the inception of the agency.”
Also speaking, the state Coordinator of Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team, (DSVRT), Mrs. Titilola Vivor-Adeniyi, said that most of the victims were forced to discontinue with the prosecution of the perpetrators.
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