Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja
The Federal Government has directed the police to unravel the circumstances surrounding the gang-rape and murder of a female student of the University of Benin, Uwaila Omozuwa, in Benin City.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja, yesterday, said the government also directed the Police to unravel the serial sexual abuse of a minor in Jigawa State by 14 men.
Uwaila, a 22-year-old microbiology student, was raped and killed in an empty Church in Benin where she had gone to study.
The crime has sparked outrage across country.
In the statement signed by his Special Adviser, Segun Adeyemi, the minister said by bringing the perpetrators of the heinous crimes to justice, the Government will be serving a strong notice of its total aversion to gender-based violence in whatever form. The minister described the gang-rape and murder of Omozuwa as “a cruel and barbaric act that offends human sensibility, in addition to being antithetical to decency” stressing that “no society will tolerate such depravity.”
He said the serial sexual abuse of a minor by 14 men in Jigawa State “is not only repulsive, but highly condemnable. It is said that the true measure of a society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members,” he said.
Mohammed assured that the Federal Government would do everything possible to stem the growing tide of gender-based violence in the country.
Meanwhile, the Senate has asked the relevant law enforcement agencies to administer stiffer punishment to sex offenders.