Kudos to Lagos State Governor,
Raji Fashola who is the first
Nigerian governor to open a
sex offenders register. He
signed an executive order to
provide for compulsory
reporting of actual or suspected
child abuse and establishment
of a sex offenders’ register at
the State House, Alausa
Secretariat, Ikeja, yesterday Dec.
1st.
He also identified Alimosho,
Kosofe, Agege and Oshodi-Isolo
Local Govt as the councils with
the highest cases of Sexual and
Gender Based Violence crimes
in the state...
Below is what Fashola said
“I will like to tell those
perpetrating the act in
these local governments
(Alimosho, Kosofe, Agege
and Oshodi-Isolo) to desist
now because we would be
coming after them. We will
combat these crimes so
that they do not become
big crimes in the state. Also,
in order to ensure that
criminals are monitored,
we have created a crime
data register which states
everyone who has engaged
the criminal justice system
of the state, and we have
close to a 100, 000
offenders on that register.
And very soon, we would
start deploying people to
the data rooms in the
police stations across the
state to gather the bio data
of offenders including their
photographs and others.
“This was why we have
asked everyone to register
so that before you employ
anyone, you will know his
track record. And this is the
time for everyone especially
women to speak against it.
This is the time for us to
have a local enforcement
unit; either we call it state
police or whatever name
we wish to call it, to protect
the women from frequent
abuse from the opposite
gender. This is the time for
women to rise up and
challenge employers who
sets unimaginable targets
for their female employees.
These were targets they
could not set for men,” he
said
The Lagos State Attorney-
General Mr Ade Ipaye added
that
“We monitoring one
hundred and thirteen 113
sexual violence cases
currently at the High Court.
The Team is working
actively to ensure prompt
prosecution of these cases.
The major aim of the Sex
Offenders Monitoring
Programme and the
Mandated Reporter policy is
to reduce repeat cases by
providing names and
personal details of
convicted sex offenders in
the State to a central
database. The Database will
be accessible to individuals
and organizations that
need information. For
example, School proprietors
who want to recruit can
access this Register as a
form of background check.
“The Mandated Reporter
policy will make it
compulsory for all State
School Administrators,
Counsellors, Teachers, Social
Welfare Officers and any
other official of the State
Government having any
dealings with children to
report any suspected or
actual child abuse or
neglect to the Attorney-
General’s office. It is
envisaged that the Lagos
State Sex Offenders
Register will be open and
maintained by the Lagos
State Ministry of Justice in
partnership with the Lagos
State Judicia

Good one