Failure to report rape now results in two-year jail term in Nigeria.

Rape remains one of the more prevalent but under-reported crimes in Nigeria. Lagos State alone reported 12, 120 cases of rape in the last four years. The number of rape cases in the country has always been cause for concern for both government and non-governmental organisations in Nigeria, like Project Alert, who campaign nonstop against it.

These concerns pushed the Lagos State Government Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT) to approach the Lagos State legislature for a solution, to which it has now responded by deeming it a criminal offence to not report cases of rape to the appropriate authorities. This crime is punishable by a two-year imprisonment. The law affects employees under the state government who work directly with children.
This law was a follow up to the training of 190 people as ‘responders’ to cases of rap and sexual abuse by the Lagos State Government that was just concluded on August 16 of 2015. The responders are teachers, nurses, and social workers equipped with skills that enable them to obtain information concerning cases of sexual abuse and report them adequately.

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