The Enugu State House of Assembly has passed the Criminal Code Amendment Bill, as it concerns the girl child, into law.
The original law contained in Section 200 of the Criminal Code Cap 30 Laws of Enugu State of Nigeria, 2004 bothers on the sexual abuse and molestation of the girl child under the age of eleven years.
Commenting on the need for its amendment, member representating Ezeagu constituency in the House, Hon. Chima Obieze who sponsored the Bill for amendment, noted that the provisions of the laws relating to criminal justice administration “are not in tune with modern realties and practicality,” hence requires necessary amendments “to make them more practicable and to avoid defeating the aims for which they were originally enacted.”
He argued that the two months period interval prescribed by the original law to begin the prosecution of the offences of girl child abuse were no longer tenable or practicable.
He listed the tedious processes involved in establishing the case of girl child sexual abuse before its diligent prosecution at the High Court, asking whether the two-month time frame stipulated by the law would be enough to conclude the processes.
According to him, “When the offence in Section 200 of the Law is allegedly committed, the first step is to make a formal report to the police, whose responsibility is to investigate the allegation. After the matter is reported, a medical form is issued to the victim to undergo medical examination. Depending on the health status of the victim at the material time, her statement will be recorded immediately or postponed to a later date to allow for adequate medical attention. In this period, the suspect is arrested. However, we must also consider the possibility that the suspect may be at large immediately the alleged commission of the offence, as it is in very many cases. I humbly believe that this possibilities are not put into consideration by drafters of this Law.
“Still in the investigation, the stage takes considerable time as errors in or doubts not resolved or probabilities not properly checked out will all go in favour of the suspect during trial. It is worthy of note, that the standard of proof in criminal cases is proof beyond reasonable doubt. In view of this, the police spend time during investigation.
“At the end of investigation and a prima facie case is established against the suspect, the practice in this state is that the suspect is first arraigned before a magistrate court. The sole purpose of this is for the magistrate to make an order remanding the suspect in prison custody (correctional service) and the casefile to be transmitted to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions for his legal advice.
“At the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, there are certain processes to go through before information can be filed in the High Court in respect of the matter. Even the Law (Enugu State Administration of Criminal Law 2017) allows the State a period of time within which to prepare a legal opinion and file information at the High Court or discharge the defendant.
“The question that comes to mind here is: how practicable is this? To answer this question practically, permit me to unravel the process from the commission of the offence to the commencement of prosecution and allow you determine how practicable the two months time bar imposed by our law is especially considering the peculiarity of our society.”
The State lawmaker further observed that the provisions of the law punishing the offence of rape as contained in Section 309 has no specific stipulated time frame for which prosecution must commence in the commission of rape case, querying “what mischief does the insertion of the stringent condition in Section 200, which deals with children and much younger victims intend to cure that Sections 308 and 309 that deal with much older victims totally ignored?”
He added that “Section 200 of the Criminal Code Law appeared to be in favour of suspects given the harsh reality that it is very difficult to commence within two months after the commission of the alleged offence.”
Taking notice of the age bracket in the original law, he said, “It is also noteworthy to observe that paragraph one of the said section mentioned 11years. It is my view that the age bar has to be raised to 13 years.”
“Again, it is now a sad reality that not only the girl-child can be abused but also the boy child. We therefore amended further to hold that the section deals with both the boy-child and the girlchild.
“I have said earlier but let me reiterated, we owe our daughters, sisters, wives, sons, and mothers to be; a duty to ensure they grow into an uninitimidated, unbroken and whole women and men. To become the ideal Nigerian man/woman in the future.
“We can achieve this if we put in place Laws and structures that protect them from both physical and sexual abuse from birth till they get to the age of consent and choices,” he concluded.
