https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay1T_DaIZcs

President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan has said that the passage of the sexual harassment bill by the Senate will ensure the safety of students of tertiary institutions in the country.

Lawan stated this in his remarks on Tuesday after the upper chamber passed a bill for an Act to prevent, prohibit and redress sexual harassment of students in Tertiary Educational Institutions.

The bill was sponsored by the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege (APC – Delta Central).

The passage of the bill followed the consideration of the report of the Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters.

Speaking on the bill passed by the upper chamber, Lawan said, “this is a very important and landmark legislation that the Ninth Senate has passed. We have to protect our daughters from predators.”

“In the process we could see clearly that we wanted fair means of determining what offence somebody is accused of, so it is a balanced legislation.

“We want our tertiary institutions to be a very safe environment for everyone, and this is a legislation that will ensure that wish”, the Senate President added.

Earlier in his presentation, the Chairman of the Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (APC – Ekiti Central), said the piece of legislation “attracted unprecedented support from not only Distinguished Senators as demonstrated by the 106 Senators that Co-sponsored the bill but an overwhelming number of Nigerians who see the bill as a necessary legislative intervention that will bring sanity and good order to the educator-student relationship in our tertiary institutions.”

According to the lawmaker, “the bill is not targeted at a particular community – the educators and that it does not interfere with the autonomy of the universities – rather, it is intended to reposition and strengthen our tertiary educational institutions to maintain the core values of etiquette and excellence.”

He added that with the passage of the bill, the piece of legislation will bridge the huge gap and give legal backing to any internal rule by educational institutions to check the incidences of sexual harassment.

Bamidele stated that contrary to ASUU’s claim that there are extant laws that can sufficiently address sexual harassment in tertiary institutions, the Committee found that there are no such laws.

“This legislation is meant to address incidence of sexual harassment in tertiary institutions only, as there are other laws that address sexual offences in respect of persons under the age of 18 years such as the Child Rights Act 2003”, the lawmaker stressed.

He added that, “by enacting this bill into law, the Nigerian Government would be fulfilling part of its obligations undertaken through the ratification of the United States Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa, and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, amongst others.”

Lawmakers during the clause by clause consideration of the bill, however differed on the retention of clause seven in the bill.

The Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege who proposed an amendment to clause 7, argued that it was unnecessary for the prosecution to prove the intention of the accused person or the condition under which the act of sexual harassment was carried out.

According to him, the commission of sexual harassment was sufficient to try any educator accused of a sexual offence.

Lawmakers such as the Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi (APC – Kebbi North) and Senator Abdullahi Adamu (APC – Nasarawa West), however, argued on the contrary that should the bill make it unnecessary for the prosecutor to prove the intention of any accused person in a sexual harassment trial, same would lower the requisite standards obtainable in criminal proceedings.

According to Senator James Manager (PDP – Delta South), going ahead to pass the bill without making it compulsory for prosecutors to prove the intention of the accused person in a sexual harassment case, may expose educators to blackmail.

“Laws are being made for the people, and when you make laws with a technical amendment like this, we have to be very careful.

“The rape cases that we have had in recent times, majority of them are outside the universities or the tertiary institutions and they are all strict liability offences. We have not been able to amend that particular part of the law.

“When you isolate, because some of the rape cases are on children who are even five or six years, but the burden of proof is still strict liability. You have to prove, that is for a separate law for a separate group of people.

“Mr. President, we have to be very careful, as we are trying to protect the female students, we must be seen to be protecting some innocent lecturers.

“In this day of the internet, a lecturer can easily be set up. We have to be very careful. For us to isolate by removing the intention, that will not be good enough”, Manager said.

The lawmakers while voting on clause seven, voted for its retention as contained in the bill and recommended by the Committee.

The clause provides for strict liability which makes it necessary for prosecutors to prove the intention of the accused, as well as the condition under which the act of sexual harassment was carried out.

https://dailytimes.ng/sexual-harassment-bill-passed-to-guarantee-safety-of-students-in-schools-lawan/

Let it not be an advantage for females to retaliate or punish males

Sexual harassment in our institute is like Police and bribe

N

Senator Akpabio comes to mind!

so now our girls are now safe.

really? seriously?

okay. i believe you Sir.

CHIOMAEZEH:

https://dailytimes.ng/sexual-harassment-bill-passed-to-guarantee-safety-of-students-in-schools-lawan/

What's the use of these laws , when the police who is the first law enforcement officers wants to collect money before they listen to you.

My country people them go talkuntalkun. Hmm buh is all audio billl to me .

Watch out for how some ladies will use it to tarnish lecturers image

Good, all our girls go save small but these politicians sef
See as them all pass the bill on lecturers but death sentence bill on looters no even see the dawn. Bunch of nonentities voted by useless youths.

Pls if the air I breathe is not urs don't just quote me unnecessarily, its not everytime I make use of my home training

Good move !........but the painful thing is that some girls in the University willing offer sex in exchange for marks........even some in secondary schools.

Wetin concern me. Invest money and get enough women u wish for

Good

Good start, but what’s the use of laws if they’re not obeyed? The tyrant and his proxies who should implement this law are busy embezzling Nigeria’s money and enriching themselves.

.

mygreenday:
so now our girls are now safe.

really? seriously?

okay. i believe you Sir.

It is for both sexes na

This our country is very funny oo. So DSS arrest EFCC chairman for fraud.
Is God not wonderful?
Abeg how we go take settle this matter now.

this is a welcome development.. may God continue to show you all to do the right things

Icon4s:


It is for both sexes na

okay. okay

so everybody is safe now.

everywhere is good now.

oya students, over to you.

Good thing is, lecturers would be very careful, bad news is, those that pass exams through "servicing" would have to rethink and read or fail. This is because it would be easier for a student to set up a lecturer, in turn making lecturers more sceptical about them.

Do you know that if you wink at your student, in that bill, you are liable to 2years imprisonment or 1m naira fine? Thank goodness the prosecutor would have to prove intent. ���

Senate fighting results not the root of the problems.

If malpractice is curbed at WAEC level, there would be less cases of sexual harassment. They'd be fewer people who'd want to pass using money or body, victimisation will in turn reduce.

There are only few lecturers who will give you an F when you deserve an A so as to enjoy a taste of you. They'd rather spoil your cgpa by giving u D or E.

Trust Girls, They Will Use This As A Trap To Fall Many Men In Schools.

how about flooding dem publicly

we are moving gradually

holuwajobar:
Watch out for how some ladies will use it to tarnish lecturers image

cause many of them are disgusting

Good one, this sexual harassment thing has got out of hand for this our naija

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Nice one

Not just safety of students, safety of everyone becos even superior get harassed sexually too

ASUU is a very useless union.

For donkey's years, Nigerians have been complaining about sexual harassment of female students by their lecturers. Yet, the union failed to address it.

Now, the legislature is talking a bold step to address the societal menace, ASUU and other unions in institutions of higher learning are crying that they are being targeted.

BTW, those from Delta State, who Senator Ovie Omo-Agege represents, have given Nigeria one of her best senators both in the last Senate and today.

Much as he has his thuggery traits, I have yet to see any other senator who has sponsored more impactful bills like that man.

90% of university girls are runs girl

Another display of idiocy by Africans in a bid to imitate Europeans and USA. The nonsensical sexual harassment has been the slogan of lesbian group.

Uncletony:
90% of university girls are runs girl

Even if she is a runz girl, a girl has the right to determine who she should have sex with

Not some old man forcing her to sleep with him before she can ace a course

Choice is something that life gave all of us, and we must respect that