Lamorde advocates special court to ensure accelerated hearing of rape cases

The Assistant Inspector General Force Intelligence, Ibrahim Lamorde who was appointed by the Inspector General of Police to lead human rights reforms in the Force has advocated a special court to ensure accelerated hearing of rape cases in the country.

He disclosed this in Abuja during a visit by the leadership of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to the force Headquarters.

He said this would provide enabling environment to ensure privacy for survivors and encourage them to speak out freely when they present their cases during hearing.

The meeting between the organisations was aimed at strengthening the collaboration in dealing with cases of rape and and other Sex Gender Based Violence ( SGBV ) brought before them.

Lamorde said stigmatization of rape victims has been the problem preventing them from speaking up and police must understand the magnitude of the problem being created when  the survivors are discouraged.

He emphasized the need to check the threshold of dealing with rape cases which are usually delayed due to the ambiguity surrounding the evidence to prove such cases. According to him, delay in justice has psychological impact on survivors which emboldens the perpetrators.

He reiterated the importance of retaining professional police officers trained in dealing with rape cases to stay on their beat for at least three (3) years to ensure continuity in capacity to deal with cases as well as share knowledge with other officers on how to deal with such sensitive cases.