The House observed that domesticating the act or amending the State Penal Code Law to incorporate the whole elements of the act will not be a problem, but prosecuting the offenders.
The Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Aminu Iya Abbas stated this while receiving the leadership of Initiative for Women's Accelerated Development in Africa led by its Vice President North East, Hajiya Jamila Umar who paid him a courtesy visit in his office today.
Rt. Hon. Iya Abbas said they will work with the House Committee on Women Affairs to see if domesticating the VAPP will be better than amending Penal Code Law, they will go for it, and that if it is better to amend Penal Code Law so as to incorporate all the elements of VAPP, they will also consider it.
He told them that if the existing law does not have elements to prove the case of rape as they want it, the house under his able leadership will amend it so as to capture what they want instead of enacting new law that always comes with headache.
According to him, the house is not running away from domesticating the law in Adamawa, but it takes a longer period more especially if it comes with expenses, adding that after passing the bill, they have to go and lobby for its assent.
However, the Speaker of the house has lamented that the major concern of the house is the conspiracy against the prosecution of offenders, saying that the society has problems more than having the laws, and stressed the need to look into the ways of addressing those problems.
He observed with dismay a situation where families of the victims, relatives and judicial officers conspire against the prosecution of the suspects, saying that the parents will stand their ground that they do not want the names of their sons and daughters to be exposed.
The Speaker explained that as far as parents and judicial staff continue to conspire against prosecution of offenders, adopting/ domesticating the act or amending the law will not solve the problem, stating that parents of the victims tend to cover the perpetrators from standing trial.
He added that one cannot apportion blame on the legislature because according to him even the Penal Code was reviewed in 2018, pointing out that even with the laws existing today, suspects are tried and jailed in other places, but no single person is jailed in Adamawa.
In her remarks, the Chairman House Standing Committee on Women Affairs, Hon. Kate Raymond Mamuno(Demsa) thanked the Speaker for highlighting some of the major points that they need to know before considering domesticating it.
Hon. Mamuno disclosed that it is one thing to domesticate a law and another thing to implement it, saying it is not about enacting laws, but the people because they donnot abide by it, saying that they have a lot of work to do right from their houses.
Speaking earlier, the Vice President of the Association, Hajiya Jamila Umar said that the major objectives of the association is to mobilise women to participate actively in national development, promote the education of girl child, ensure adequate legislation and implementation of laws and policies on women among others.
The VP noted that the act came into force in 2015 and is applicable in FCT and 9 States, saying that it covers offences such as rape, spousal, battery, stalking, harassment and other forms of violent abuses which are new innovations to the Nigerian legal system.
Hajiya Jamila Umar told the Speaker that the act is more comprehensive and all encompassing and called on the house to adopt it so as address the offences.
Domesticating the act will help in reducing all forms of rape within the state. Welldone Inwoad Adamawa state
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