Members of the Bauchi State House of Assembly have lamented that a 45-year-old man, who was arrested and handed over to the police for allegedly defiling a seven-year child, was bailed by some influential persons.
The incident reportedly happened at Faggo in the Shira Local Government Area of the state.
The member representing Shira Constituency in the Assembly, Bello Shira, disclosed this during plenary on Tuesday, while speaking under matters of urgent public importance.
He informed the House that the “terrible and devastating incident” happened in Faggo, adding that immediately the culprit was released on bail; he ran away and was nowhere to be found.
Shira stated, “The man threatened the girl with a knife and subsequently raped her. After he was arrested and handed over to security agents, some influential people bailed him.
“They said they will resolve the matter amicably. Immediately after his release, he ran away and he is now inaccessible.”
He explained that as a member representing the people of the area, it was his duty to stand for them and urged the House to ensure justice for the girl so that the suspect would be rearrested and face the music.
The lawmaker, who expressed confidence that the Assembly would stand for the poor girl, asked for speedy action on the matter to fish out the culprit.
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The Speaker of the House, Abubakar Suleiman, expressed worry over the increase in rape cases in the state despite the enactment of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Law by the Assembly, which was signed into law by the governor to end such heinous acts.
He explained that the lawmakers would soon make some amendments on the law so that offenders would be punished.
Contributing, the member representing the Toro/Jama’a Constituency, Tukur Ibrahim, stated that a similar incident happened in Toro on Monday and this had caused tension in the area.
He urged the Assembly to follow up the cases and ensure that the right thing was done.
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Another lawmaker, Yusuf Dadiye, representing the Ganjuwa West Constituency, suggested that “the security and judiciary committees should be assigned to go and find out more facts about the cases and make sure that the culprits are arrested and handed over to the authorities.”
The member representing the Dambam/Dagauda/Jalam Constituency, Baballe Dambam, alleged that “since some influential politicians or government officials are behind the case, the House should find out who they are and ask the government to take action about them.”
The Speaker, who explained that the appropriate committee to handle the matter was that on Women Affairs, referred the matter to the committee and gave it one week to report back its findings.
© ControlTV 2021.
