THE Oyo state House of Assembly on Tuesday passed the Child Sexual Offences bill, 2019 into law.
The law which is aimed to protect the rights of children in the state finds any person who engages in domestic sexual violence with a child is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a minimum of five years imprisonment or minimum of N500,000 or both.
Adebo Ogundoyin, the Speaker of the House, while speaking during the house’s plenary decried the rising cases of child abuse in the state.
Ogundoyin, while stating that the Oyo State government is committed to nipping rape and other sexual offenses in the bud, added that relevant laws are needed to ensure offenders are duly punished.
He stressed that the bill is an effort towards ending rape, child abuse and other sexual offenses in the state.
“Aside offenders of domestic sexual violence, any person who causes pornographic materials to be sent to public space or cyber space to which a child may have access is guilty of an offence and also liable on conviction to five years imprisonment or fine of N5,000,000 or both.
“Likewise, any person who stigmatizes a victim of sexual offences under this just passed bill is guilty of an offense and liable on conviction to maximum of two years imprisonment and maximum fine of N200,000,”he said.
He commended the committee on women affairs and community development for its due diligence in the passage of the bill.
“The committee on women affairs and community development have done commendable work and we trust the executive will assent the law in no time for proper implementation and effectiveness.”
Marcus Williams, the Chairman of the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Inclusion’s Rapid Response Team on Sexual, Gender-Based Violence and Child Abuse, in Oyo State, during a report presentation to the state’s Ministry of Women Affairs in July, said seventeen child abuse cases were reported in Oyo State between March and June, 2020, with victims’s age ranging from one to 17.
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