Emmanuel Thomas
May 4, 2015 – Not less than 12, 430 rape cases were recorded in Lagos State in the last four years, Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Ade Ipaye has said.
Ipaye made the revelation while speaking at a press conference in Lagos. He said that last year 526 rape cases were handled by the ministry and that 227 cases are currently pending in court. He said the state government succeeded in obtaining judgement for 15 cases.
He said that the Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team of the ministry facilitated an executive order during the period that led to the setting up of sex offenders register.
According to him, over 140 sex offenders have been listed on the register. He said that in the last four years, the Office of Public Defender (OPD) handled over 15,000 cases in behalf of indigent residents at no cost and that the cases cut across labour, civil matters, criminal cases, coroner inquest and cases related to fundamental human rights.
He said that the OPD has facilitated collection of over N152, 062.33kobo as compensation for complainants in the last four years while N42 million was collected as compensation in behalf of complainants in the last one year.
He said that the OPD also secured 49 judgements in favour of clients. “These judgements include those who were discharged and acquitted by the courts after spending several years in prison”, he said.
According to him, among cases that are outstanding include that of Nnami Igbele (42) who had spent eight years in custody before being discharged.
“In another landmark case, six men who were arrested and discharged for the offence of manslaughter in 2006 were provided free legal advice by OPD and were eventually discharged and acquitted at the conclusion of their trial”, he said.
