Nigeria Launches First National Sex Offenders Register - Liberty TV/Radio - News - Voice For All! Vision For Alll!
Editor 2
November 25, 2019
Nigerialaunched its first national sexual offenders register, setting up a database ofthose convicted for sexual violence in a move seen as an important step towardsclamping down on abuse.
TheSexual Offender Register will contain the names of all those prosecuted forsexual violence in Africa’s most populous nation since 2015.
Therecord will be available online to better help the public, state bodies andpolice conduct background checks and identify repeat offenders.
Suspectswho are cleared will also be recorded in a part of the register only availableto law enforcement agencies, amid concerns by campaigners that the majority ofsexual offenders escape prosecution due to failings in the justice system.
Atthe launch in the capital, Abuja, Nigeria minister for humanitarian affairs,Sadiya Farouq, praised the initiative.
Shesaid the humanitarian and security crisis in northeast Nigeria caused by adecade-long jihadist insurgency had seen a rise in cases of sexual abuse whichneeded to be addressed.