RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Nigerian women to march against rape

This incident is catching international attention as the petition campaign below demonstrates. Some families choose other means to deal with rape, i.e. indigenous councils, church societies, etc. to seek justice, reparation, and counsel. Still it is clear that the government, based on the underreporting, has not taken on rape as a serious crime. 

 

-Jamaine Abidogun

 

 

Nigerian officials must investigate brutal rape caught on video   There's a desperate search on for a female university student in Nigeria. Some want to silence her. Others want to protect her. On August 16, the unidentified woman was gang-raped by five male students at Abia State University -- for hours, as she begged first for mercy, and then for her rapists to kill her because of the pain. And it's all on video. Change.org member Adetomi Aladekomo has joined bloggers and activists working to bring the victim to safety and her rapists to justice by starting a petition to Abia State University (ABSU) and state officials. Sign Adetomi's petition to demand a full investigation into the videotaped rape in order to prosecute and convict the "ABSU 5" gang-rapists. Over the past two weeks, bloggers and individuals around the world have put up reward money and used video imaging software to try to identify the victim and the rapists -- when the police should have been doing this all along. Unbelievably, state authorities have so far stymied efforts, preferring to deny the rape ever even happened under their watch. Local women's groups fear that they're even out to silence the victim, perpetuating a culture of fear and shame around rape in Nigeria, where such crimes are dramatically under-reported and under-prosecuted. Adetomi, who grew up in Nigeria until she was seventeen, knows that international outcry around the gang rape at ABSU will be decisive in protecting the victim and bringing justice. With the whole world watching, the victim may have the courage to come forward and press charges -- and other women who’ve been raped may come forward, too, when they previously would not have. In fact, it was because of Change.org members and international outcry earlier this year that a woman who had created a Change.org petition from inside a Cape Town safe house was able to come out and seek justice for her partner, who had been gang-raped and killed to 'cure' her of being a lesbian. Global pressure is as important today as it was then. Demand the "ABSU 5" gang-rapists who videotaped their own crime pay for it with prison time. Sign Adetomi's petition now, and then send it to everyone you know. Thanks for being a change-maker, Shelby and the Change.org team

 

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Hetty ter Haar
Sent: Saturday, September 24, 2011 2:54 PM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Nigerian women to march against rape

 

Nigerian women to march against rape

 

High-profile incidents lead to rare public focus on issue, with

campaigners claiming rapists offend with 'impunity'

 

David Smith

Friday September 23 2011

guardian.co.uk

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/22/nigerian-women-march-against-rape

 

 

Women in Nigeria are planning to march in protest at what they say is

a hidden epidemic of rape and sexual violence in Africa's most

populous country.

 

The issue has received rare public attention after the emergence of an

online video in which a woman is apparently gang-raped and pleads with

her assailants to kill her.

 

This followed another recent incident in which it was alleged that a

young woman assigned to a community to perform volunteer service had

been raped by a traditional ruler.

 

Local campaigners hope that a show of anger on the streets - possibly

on 25 November, the International Day Against Violence Against Women -

will force Nigeria's leaders to end a conspiracy of silence.

 

Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, executive director of the Women Advocates

Research and Documentation Centre, said: "There is still a lot of hush-

hush around it in Nigeria. That's why the problem is as bad as it is.

But all that's happened in the past three months shows that rape and

sexual violence is a major issue."

 

Akiyode-Afolabi criticised the Nigerian government for a lacklustre

response.

 

"Nothing has been put into action. Our laws are still not clear. The

woman who wants to report rape does not have the confidence in the

justice system in Nigeria. The police are not accountable to the

people. There is a lot of impunity on the issue of rape and sexual

violence in Nigeria."

 

The country could learn from reporting mechanisms and laws pioneered

by Liberia, she added. "The Nigerian government has failed to protect

women. We need to hold it accountable. There is a need for immediate

steps to create laws and institutions that protect women."

 

Officially, rape is rare in Nigeria. In a country of 140 million

people, there were just 1,952 cases in 2009, according to federal

police statistics posted on a website called Nigeria Police Watch. But

a 2006 Amnesty International study [http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/

info/AFR44/020/2006/en" title="] said reporting was thought to be

"sporadic, piecemeal and inconsistent".

 

The wave of public revulsion has been triggered by an online video

that purports to show five men taking turns to rape a woman in a

university dormitory.

 

In the grainy footage, the five men promise to drive the woman home,

pushing her back down each time she starts to stand up. The woman

cries several times: "Please just kill me." The men laugh.

 

The 10-minute video had circulated for weeks around the campus of Abia

State University near the Niger delta before being posted on the

internet. It appears to take place in a single-room dormitory or

student hostel.

 

Nigeria's youth minister, Bolaji Abdullahi, called for the university

and police to arrest and prosecute the men shown in the video, as well

as offering assistance to the woman.

 

"The attitude of these men, if indeed they are young Nigerians, does

not represent the character and nature of the Nigerian youth," the

minister said.

 

On Thursday, Nigerian MPs roundly condemned the act and mandated the

police to investigate.

 

But the university and state government officials have reportedly

denied the video's authenticity and that it took place near or on the

university grounds.

 

Josephine Effah-Chukwuma, executive director of the Nigerian women's

rights group called Project Alert, told the Associated Press: "The

perpetrators go further to record it and circulate it. It shows for me

that they're daring society to take action on it. It shows that

there's a high level of impunity."

 

Amnesty's 2006 report, entitled Rape - the Silent Weapon, found that

rape of women and girls by the police and security forces, and within

their homes and community, was "endemic" in Nigeria. Last year the

Open Society Justice Initiative accused Nigerian police of committing

rapes [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10124812" title="], particularly of

sex workers, along with extrajudicial killings and torture in custody.

 

Joe Okei-Odumakin, president of the activist network Women Arise

[http://www.womenarise.org" title="], said on Thursday: "Impunity is

on the rise because of our inability to bring the perpetrators to

book. Rape and sexual violence have become a regular occurrence, a

norm in Nigeria. Women don't think they will be believed so they won't

openly give their side of the story."

 

 

guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2011

 

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