The Federal Executive Council (FEC) at its virtual meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari today, vowed to ensure the full weight of the law is applied on rapists and other perpetrators of violence against women and vulnerable persons.
The Council, which described the upsurge in rape cases across the country as embarrassing, also pushed for the domestication of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act (VAPPA), 2015 in all States of the Federation.
The decision followed a memo presented during the meeting by the Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, in the wake of the outrage that has greeted rising cases of rape and gender-based violence in the country.
The incidents have dramatically increased within the period of the national lockdown necessitated by the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19).
For instance, no fewer than 80 rape cases were recorded in various parts of Anambra State during the COVID-19 lockdown between last April and May, as against about 30 in the whole of last year.
Fourteen men in Jigawa State, were reported to have repeatedly raped a minor, while 18-year-old Barakat Bello, who was taking her bath, was raped and macheted to death in Ibadan, Oyo State.
Outrage had also trailed the death of Vera Uwaila Omozuwa, a 22-year-old microbiology student, raped and killed in an empty church in Benin City.
The Child Rights Act (CRA), provides that sex with a child is rape, and anyone who has sexual intercourse with a child is liable to imprisonment for life upon conviction.
The VAPPA law being canvassed by the FEC is only applicable in the Federal Capital Territory, and nine other States of the Federation.
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