Lagos State Governor opens register for sex offenders
Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola has signed an executive bill to create a register for all sex offenders in the state. He is the first Nigerian Governor to do this. This register, along with the already instituted crime data register, will enable law enforcement agents prosecute sexual offences committed within the state better.
He identified Alimosho, Kosofe, Agege and Oshodi-Isolo as the areas with the highest cases of Sexual and Gender Based Violence in the state.
“I will like to tell those perpetrating the act in these local governments; Alimosho, Kosofe, Agege and Oshodi-Isolo to desist now because we would be coming after them. We will combat these crimes so that they do not become big crimes in the state. Also, in order to ensure that criminals are monitored, we have created a crime data register which states everyone who has engaged the criminal justice system of the state, and we have close to 100, 000 offenders on that register. And very soon, we would start deploying people to the data rooms in the police stations across the state to gather the bio-data of offenders including their photographs and others. This was why we have asked everyone to register so that before you employ anyone, you will know his track record,” he said.
He added:
“And this is the time for everyone especially women to speak against it. This is the time for us to have a local enforcement unit; either we call it state police or whatever name we wish to call it, to protect the women from frequent abuse from their opposite gender.”
Thanks Mr governor.