State records 50 rape cases in July

LAGOS State Government has warned residents, especially custodians of minors, to be wary of rapists and pedophiles operating in the state.  The government though gave assurance that everything is being done to eradicate the social menace, said incidents of rape cases had increased lately, with 50 rape cases recorded in July.
Coordinator, Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT), Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi, said of the 50 recorded cases, at least 30 were victims of domestic violence, adding that her team was also monitoring over 20 cases, which include child abuse, defilement and rape backed with key medical evidence and police reports.
This, according to her, excludes the total number of cases the Directorate of Public Prosecutions is prosecuting at the High Court.   Vivour-Adeniyi enjoined victims of sexual and gender-based violence to speak out, as the state government is ready to fight all such causes and ensure justice is served.
It would be recalled that the state government inaugurated the DSVRT in September 2014, as a response to the increase in incidents of reported rape, defilement, domestic violence, child abuse, neglect and maltreatment in the State.
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, last month, met with the team and charged them to go all out and increase victim safety and offender responsibility by providing a cross jurisdictional response that is uniform in approach in the way Sexual and Gender Based Violence cases are handled in the state.
Vivour-Adeniyi said that DSVRT had, therefore, trained over 800 mandated reporters, who are State Government employees that have dealings with children on how to detect signs of child abuse and steps to take in reporting such cases.
“Furthermore,” she said, “over 2000 school children have been empowered through our rape prevention workshops on how to avoid being a victim of sexual abuse, self defence and how to preserve evidence when physically or sexually assaulted.”