Murder Of Omozuwa: Group Calls For Judicial Inquiry To Unravel Murderers, Tasks IGP

By Akinwale Kasali

The murder of Vera Uwala Omozuwa has generated outrage from different quarters. Now, Human Right Groups, Female Advocacy Group, Gender Equality Groups, Women Groups among others have shown their anger over the rape and murder of the late undergraduate, calling for the culprits to be brought to book.

The Community Peoples Initiative Against AIDS (COPEAIDS FOUNDATION)  called on the Federal Government to set up an independent Judicial Inquiry to bring to book the rapists who murdered Miss Vera Uwala Omozuwa at a Church in Benin.

The group said the Judicial Inquiry should draw members from the civil society, police and the national assembly with the mandate of dealing with rape, its network of perpetrators across the country, the ritual content and the nature and form of cult groups who see rape as an inevitable process of enlistment for their fellow criminals.

The group said rape has assumed alarming proportion in Nigeria adding that only few of such cases are reported out of fear for revenge.

Omozuwa, a 100 level Microbiology student of University of Benin was raped and clubbed to death in a church  by unknown persons.

The  group, in a statement on Wednesday, signed by its Executive Director, Mrs Feyisike Adeoye said individuals and criminal gangs across the country have institutionalised rape warning that unless the problem is addressed holistically, perpetrators will continue to flourish.

COPEAIDS FOUNDATION said the lack of enforcement of punishment on sexual offenders continue to embolden rapists to daily commit the horrendous crime. COPEAIDS also called on the Inspector General of Police to ensure speedy arrest of the culprits and ensure immediate prosecution.

‘While the police should do its job, immediate a judicial inquiry is essential to unravel the culprits and to find out if they operate an extensive network and who are those that consistently support them. We are interested in seeing justice meted out to those who killed her and also we want the government to go beyond sanctions to establish the rogue cells of rapists across the country’ Adeoye stated.

She said a judicial inquiry will also look at existing laws and the safety nets they provide for rapists,

The group said the termination of a promising life in the most violent way right in the temple of God is sacrilegious and  unacceptable, adding that the killers who raped  Omozuwa inside a Church of God must be immediately arrested and prosecuted to serve as deterrents to other would be rapist.

According to Adeoye, the horrific incident “ is traumatic especially in the spaces where women and girls should be safest from gender-based violence adding that the home, the schools and now places of worship is no longer safe”.

Authorities in Nigeria have not done enough to combat sexual violence, she said.

“The method the state has been using over the years, clearly is far from the intensity required to deter rapists and potential rapists and to protect women and girls,” she said.

Adeoye said sexual violence is endemic in Nigeria. She said data on the number of reported cases is very limited but a national survey on violence against children in Nigeria, conducted in 2014, found that one in four women had experienced sexual violence in childhood, with approximately 70% reporting more than one incident. Only 5% sought help, and only 3.5% received any services.

Women and activists in Nigeria have in recent years demanded greater action against sexual violence. Yet reported crimes come up against the systemic failings of Nigeria’s criminal justice system, which rarely prosecutes cases.Police have already been criticised for their response to Uwa’s murder. Evidence at the scene remained uncollected for days after the crime Adeoye said.

“What deters people in other parts of the world is that they know that there will be punishment and consequences for action but in Nigeria people believe they can always get away by bribing the police so much that potential victims are worried about going to court because in the end, either justice will not be served or it is delayed that it doesn’t make any sense and at the end of the day, the raped become objects of public ridicule.

She added, “Nigeria needs to strengthen the law enforcement agencies, the judiciary and all staheholders to work towards ensuring rapists face the full weight of the law.’

She said rape damages the prestige of women and inflict eternal injury on the pshye. ‘The mental state of the raped will never be the same again. It goes with a scar that never heals. It is even worse when those raped discover those who raped them are free citizens and never put behind bars.’