The Police and the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Person (NAPTIP) on Thursday pledged to strengthen the capacity of investigators in the fight against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV).
The Inspector General of Police (I-G), Mr Mohammed Adamu, disclosed this in a communique issued in Abuja at the end of a tripartite meeting with NAPTIP and the National Human Right Commission (NHRC).
Adamu said the three agencies had resolved to liaise with other partners, strengthen their working relationship, deepen inter-agency collaboration, intelligence gathering and information sharing in the fight against SGBV.
“The Police and NAPTIP are strengthening the capacity of their investigators to undertake comprehensive investigation, arrest and successful prosecution of SGBV perpetrators and extend support to victims to stabilise them psychologically.
“The police is taking full advantage of its state of the art National Crime and Incident Database Centre to collate, profile, store and share records of SGBV cases with relevant stakeholders.
“The Police is working with NAPTIP to collate and supply necessary data and statistics on rape and other sexual offences for input into the National Sexual Offenders Register,” he said.
He said that the police was intensifying the ongoing repositioning of its Gender Desk Offices in all commands and formations to effectively investigate cases of SGBV.
According to him, the leadership of the three organisations have resolved to work with other partners to organise, on continuous basis, training and retraining of first responders on cases of SGBV.
He said the three agencies would work together to ensure full implementation of the newly developed Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) by the police on responses against SGBV.
Adamu said the leadership of the three organisation called on parents, guardians, teachers, religious and traditional leaders and other stakeholders to inculcate sex education and values to their children, wards and followers.
He said this would help in the control and reduction of incidences of SGBV in the country.
The I-G said the agencies called on prospective employers of labour to conduct thorough background checks, especially on those working with children and other vulnerable persons.
Adamu said the police had received 717 cases of rape, arrested 799 suspects with 631 of the cases successfully investigated in the country between January and May.
He said that 57 of the suspects had been prosecuted and convicted while 52 were still under prosecution.
