There was a mild drama at a Chief Magistrate’s Court sitting in Ikirun, Osun State, on Thursday after a lawyer who was defending a suspected rapist during a court session informed the court that he was not aware of the existence of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act (VAPP Act).
The lawyer, who identified himself as Bello when a case of rape was mentioned in the courtroom, had wanted to move an oral bail application for the defendant, Wahab Taofeek, who was accused of raping a teenage girl in Ikirun, when the presiding Magistrate, Mrs A. O. Oyeniyi, asked him if he is aware of VAPP Act.
Responding, Bello, said, “Your Worship, I have never heard of VAPP Act.”
Bello had appeared as a defence counsel for the rape matter alongside another lawyer, Adeyinka Ebunola.
Neither Ebunola nor the third legal practitioner in the bar could rise to tell the court of their knowledge of the VAPP law.
Despite that the rape allegation was brought under Section 2 (2) of the VAPP law of Osun State, the plea of the defendant was taken.
Taofeek pleaded not guilty to the four count-charge bordering on conspiracy, rape, sexual assault and threat to life levied against him by the Osun State Police.
Magistrate Oyeniyi who had declared her decision not to grant the accused person bail was in need of a copy of the Act to substantiate her judicial decision of not granting Taofeek bail.
Oyeniyi then asked the lawyers if anyone of them had a copy of the VAPP Act, but none could produce it.
Similarly, the Magistrate and other court officials could not produce the hardcopy of the Act.
The Magistrate then made efforts to browse the Act on the internet through her phone.
After about five minutes of Internet shopping for the Act, Oyeniyi maintained her stand that she would not be releasing the defendant on bail.
She later ordered that Taofeek be remanded in Correctional Centre after lamenting the rise in cases of rape and other sexual abuses.
The VAPP Act was signed into law by former president, Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, and it prohibits any form of violence on persons in private and public life.
The law focuses, among others, on SGBV with clear punishment for perpetrators; redefines rape to include oral and anal sex as well as penetration with objects other than the penis.
It provides compensation for victims by offenders and offers more protection for victims than any other existing Nigerian law.
The Point reports that it is worrisome that some lawyers and others are still ignorant of the existence of VAPP Act despite advocacies, campaigns and enlightenment by stakeholders geared towards eliminating or reducing to the barest minimum cases of Sexual and Gender-based Violence in the country.
Meanwhile, the police from the State Criminal Investigation Department did not attach the proof of evidence of the rape case and neither did the Investigation Police Officer came to court with the document.