Rape Perpetrators Must Be Brought To Book- Arabinrin Akeredolu

The first Lady of Ondo state, Arabinrin Betty Akeredolu has called on law enforcement agencies to ensure that perpetrators of rape and gender based violence are brought to book.

She made this call on October 11, 2021 in her keynote address during the opening ceremony of International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) law week held at the Aare Afe Babalola bar centre, Iyaganku, Ibadan.

Arabinrin Akeredolu who spoke on the theme tagged ‘Voice of Women and Children: Making the Law Work’ emphasized that there is a need for an international move to make sure that the law does not remain just a document but a guiding principle for the act of the citizens.

She also called on security operatives and forces to join hands to make sure that the perpetrators of rape and gender based violence are brought to book, adding that there is a need to train security operatives especially the police on how to handle rape cases properly.

While appreciating the efforts of FIDA, Akeredolu called for a universal effort and collaboration across all governmental levels to tackle domestic and gender based violence across all States stating that the states must have viable measures to curtail it.

Earlier in her speech, the chairperson of FIDA in Oyo state, Deborah Collins maintained that the association has been at the fore front of the campaign against all forms of violence on women and children.

She stated that FIDA has resolved more than a hundred cases involving marital disagreement and squabble, custody and maintenance of children etc.

According to Collins, the society is yet to fully evolve to embrace solutions and the innovations that the law, VAPP offers noting that there are various cases of abuse in the media, environment and neighbourhood and everyone is getting used to them and seemingly accepting them as norms.

She however lamented that the consequence of this is that the law, when not maximally used to combat and stem these abusive occurrences, remains in the realm of law on paper and not law in action.