The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), has announced plans to establish a sex offenders register which will contain names of perpetrators.
The agency said the sex register, which wouldnbe distributed to relevant agencies to shame offenders and make it easy for agencies to detect perpetrators thereby preventing further cases of sexual violence.
The Director-General of NAPTIP, Ms. Julie Okah-Donli said this at the weekend during a stakeholders meeting on the implementation of Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act in Abuja organised by the Rule of Law and Anti-corruption (ROLAC).
She revealed that sex offenders had been caught in shelters provided for victims of violence where they continue in their act undetected, lamenting that cases of violence especially against women and children were still on the rise.
She, also noted that the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) “lacks functional and effective shelters. We need to have effective shelters for victims of Violence in FCT, NAPTIP is doing its best to house the victims for now, but there is a need to establish more shelters to take care of increasing number of victims of Violence in the six area council.”
According to her, a lot still needs to be done to prevent cases of violence against persons. She also said that NAPTIP wasnworking on a 3- digit short code, a number to call for help as regards cases of violence.
She said: “Violence goes on as a result of ignorance on the part of the victims. There is therefore a need to create massive awareness, embark on national orientation, because if people don’t know their rights then they won’t know when they are being violated or when to report cases.”
She however commended efforts by ROLAC for providing gazetted copies of the VAPP Act of 2015, noting that it was a step forward in ensuring the protection of women and children who are victims of violence in our society.
The director-general added that the gazetted copies of the Act would serve judicial, administrative and informative purposes while thanking ROLAC for the laudable achievement.
Earlier, the Programme Manager of RoLAC, Ms. Priscilla Ankut said it commissioned an assessment to determine the extent of implementation of VAPP Act in FCT and recommend possible strategies that would advance the implementation of VAPP in FCT.
Ankut noted that the assessment found out that the VAPP act had not been published in an official gazette and also the need to equip the FCT SGBV Response Team Secretariat and therefore recommended that RoLAC provides support in these areas among others.
