‘ 95 underaged girls raped; police officer, lecturer indicted’

No fewer than 95 child rape cases have been  reported in five northern states. Gombe tops the states with 50 cases, according to the Child Protection Network (CPN). Kano follows with 22; Bauchi 11; Plateau 8 and Nasarawa 4.

The body did not indicate the period within which the incidents happened.

However, in the Bauchi incidents, one of them involved a police officer who allegedly had carnal knowledge of nine under-aged  girls while another involved a lecturer in a tertiary institution who was accused of raping a teenager.

MD Abubakar, Police IG
Narrating the incidents, an official of CPN, a non-governmental organisation with the mandate to protect the rights of children, Mrs Lucy Usen, said: "CPN has recorded over 50 cases of child rape across Gombe State, but more cases have not been reported. Bauchi State recorded 11 cases of rape with a particular case of one police officer raping nine under-aged girls and a lecturer of one of  the tertiary institutions  raping a teenager.

In Plateau State where an adult and a minor male rapist gang- raped a 14-year old girl, about 8 more cases are at various levels of litigation. In Kano State, CPN recorded 22 cases of child rape while Nasarawa  State established 4 cases."  Usen spoke at a workshop on child justice administration organised by UNICEF D-Field Office, Bauchi.

While stressing the need for state governments across the country to hasten implementation on the Child Rights Law, the CPN official revealed that the fight against child abuse and molestation is on the increase in the states of northern Nigeria.

She stated that 200 registered cases of child abuse had been registered by concerned stakeholders and  they include illegal engagement of underaged children in carnal acts by older men, child abandonment, hawking, stigmatization for witchcraft, illegal detention and other forms of deprivation.

According to her, a recent study report in states of Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Taraba, Plateau, Nasarawa, Borno, Yobe, Jigawa and Kano revealed shocking and disturbing case of child rights violation, but lamented that more cases of rape were not reported due to fears of stigmatization or ignorance.

Communications Officer of the UNICEF Bauchi Office, Samuel Kalu, who spoke on the UNICEF's role in promoting child protection, urged media practitioners to champion the crusade for the implementation of the Child Rights Law in Nigeria.