From Ahmed Abubakar, Dutse
No fewer than 35 little girls were violently raped by adults from January to April of this year according to the state police commissioner, Mr. Usman Sule Gonna.
The Jigawa state commissioner of police who made the declaration yesterday after an expanded state security meeting at the sir Ahmadu Bello Hall in Dutse said rape cases top the list of criminal activities being perpetuated in the state.
The state commissioner of police lamented that all of the 35 rape survivors were found to be toddlers some as young as three years old, while advising parents to be extra vigilant on the movements of their wards to prevent them from potential phidophiles.
It would be recalled that recently, the Jigawa State Governor Alhaji Muhammed Badaru Abubakar has signed to law the violence against persons prohibition bill with effect from Wednesday, 24th February 2021.
The signing of the law has brought to an end the controversy against the bill that some view as anti Islamic. The assented bill stipulated death penality for rapists and kidnappers.
Barrister Musa Adamu Aliyu had disclosed that Violence Against Persons Prohibition Law stipulates death penalty for rapists and compensation of not less than N500,000 to the convict.
The Justice commissioner explained that the law is designed to give maximum protection to the vulnerable group in the society.
According to him “the act was domesticated and ensured it is inline with the Shari’a law and also does not contradict with the cultural belief and practices of the people of the state before its signing to law”.
He noted that the law has prescribed death sentence to rapists, abductors and Kidnappers  with other three optional punishment, depending on the circumstances and judge discretion .
“If the rapist infected the victim with HIV the Judge has no option than to pass death sentence particularly if the accused person has knowledge of his HIV status.”
“The law also stipulated 16 year as age of consent, while any illegal sexual  intercourse through the vagina, anus or mouth of either a boy or girl fall in the category of rape and the offender would be treated as suchin according to the law”.
Mr Sule Gonna said the meeting enabled the stakeholders to deliberate and profer solutions to security challenges at various quarters of the state.
He said, “contrary to today’s assumption that kidnappings and banditry is in the increase especially in some states it is not so in Jigawa as we have only recorded 10 kidnappings within the last four months”, he said.
He said rape and other criminal activities such as culpable homicide and sodomy have taken the front burner in incidences of such across the state.
The commissioner of police however said the lingering judicial strike action embarked upon by the union has made the police detention cells to be conjested with criminals waiting for trials at the courts.
He said that, “I have complained to the state commissioner of Justice to intervene on how to decongest the cells and he assured me that soon Judges would be assigned to dispense justice to some of the criminals kept in the cells”, he said.
Earlier, the state governor Alhaji Muhammed Badaru Abubakar said the security meeting will ensure that all loopholes are being tightened to prevent any sexurity breach during the forth coming sallah festivity in the state.