3rd October, 2015
Some lawyers in Lagos have advised the police to support investigations in rape and defilement cases with adequate medical reports of the victims to achieve better results during prosecution of perpetrators.
The lawyers said this on Saturday in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, against the back drop of difficulty faced in securing convictions in rape cases.
Mr Chris Ayiyi, the Principal Officer, Ayiyi Chambers, Apapa, Lagos, told NAN that prosecution in rape cases would achieve better results “if the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) provides the court with sufficient and credible evidence.
“Victims should be subjected to medical examination to procure reports needed during trials; this will go a long way to establish rape thereby prove the accused guilty or otherwise; and make conviction possible.”
Mr Chibuikem Opara, a senior legal officer with Okomah Chambers, Ikeja, Lagos, said that the police should be educated on the need to conclude investigation of such cases within a short time to enable witnesses recollect and testify the exact way the incident happened.
Opara also advised the Ministry of Justice to shorten the longer period wasted in acquiring the advice of the Director for Public Prosecutions (DPP).
He advised that the victims and their families should be sensitised to understand that rape cases were not to be settled by families of the victim and the accused.
“In our society it takes a longer time to acquire the advice of the DPP as to how to handle the cases, this jeopardizes the outcome of the cases,” Opara said.
He, however, suggested that the American system of dispensing such cases within a specified period without allowing long and unnecessary adjournment that jeopardizes its outcome, could be a better option to obtain convictions.
Also, Mr Emma Ofoegbu, the Principal Officer in Ofoegbu Chambers, Yaba, Lagos, said that rape cases were on the increase in the society because the cases were poorly investigated and prosecuted by the IPOs and prosecutors.
Ofoegbu said that the police should ensure that only those who were professionally inclined in investigating such cases were employed to do the investigation.
He said that the punishment between 14 years to life imprisonment as provided by the constitution was enough to deter offenders, “but what secures deterrence from crime is certainty in punishment and not the severity of the punishment”.