Sexual abuse of IDPs: Buhari shocked as he gives order to IGP, governors (newspaper review)

Major Nigerian newspapers for Tuesday, November 1, are focused on different issues from reports about sexual exploitation of women and girls in Internally Displaced Persons’ camps to the war against corruption.

Vanguard reports that the federal government is set to formally file corruption charges against three senior court judges out of the seven, who were arrested and quizzed, last month.

Those whose cases will be filed today before the Federal High Court in Abuja, are Justices John Inyang Okoro and Sylvester Ngwuta of the Supreme Court, and Justice Adeniyi Ademola, a Federal High Court judge.

This is coming three weeks after their homes were raided at night by security agencies.

The case files of the three suspects are said to border mainly on money laundering and illegal possession of firearms and they may risk no fewer than 58 years in jail, if convicted.

Justices Okoro and Ngwuta are to be charged with alleged money laundering, while Ademola is facing charges of alleged money laundering and illegal possession of firearms.

On the front page of The Punch is the headline, ‘Outrage greets alleged sexual abuse by soldiers, others’.

A report by Human Rights Watch detailed alleged sexual exploitation of women and girls in Internally Displaced Persons’ camps by Nigerian government and security officials.

The report which was made public in Abuja on Monday has sparked reactions and condemnation from groups and individuals.

In the report, HRW accused government officials as well as security officials of raping and sexually exploiting women and girls displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency.

The government was accused of not doing enough to protect displaced women and girls and ensuring that they had access to basic rights and services

The government was also criticized for not taking action against the abusers, who, it alleged, included camp leaders, vigilance groups, policemen and soldiers.

In the report, the senior Nigeria researcher at the HRW, Mausi Segun, was quoted as saying: “It is bad enough that these women and girls are not getting the much-needed support for the horrific trauma they suffered at the hands of Boko Haram.

“It is disgraceful and outrageous that people, who should protect these women and girls, are attacking and abusing them.”

Daily Sun reports that 500 women and girls have the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) in one Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in the north east. This was disclosed in the HRW report.

An unnamed medical worker alleged that those infected with HIV in one IDP rose from 200 to 500, with more cases unreported, over fear of stigmatization. Though, the name of the camp involved was disclosed.

The report read: “A medical health worker in one of the camps, which has 10, 000 residents said the number of people requiring treatment for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections has risen sharply, from about 200 cases when the camp clinic was established in 2014 to more than 500, in July 2016. The health worker said she believed that many more women could be infected but were ashamed to go to the clinic and are likely to be suffering in silence without treatment.”

The HRW report has prompted President Muhammadu Buhari to order an investigation into the development, The Nation reports.

The president assured that the allegations raised in the HRW report were not being taken lightly and pledged to bring those found culpable to book.

The senior special assistant on media and publicity, Mallam  Garba Shehu,  said Buhari is ”worried and shocked” over the development.

He said the welfare of the most vulnerable of Nigerian citizens has been a priority of the government.

According to him, the president has given instruction to the Inspector General of Police and the governors of the affected states to commence investigations into the issue immediately. The government’s next course of action will be determined by their findings.

In other news, The Guardian reports that government agencies are frustrating food export at the airports.

This is despite the federal government’s campaign for economic diversification and export promotion.

According to report, there growing exporters’ apathy due, among others, to logistic difficulties at exit points.

Export corridors have almost been made a no-go area for local exporters due to the bureaucratic bottlenecks at the airports and alleged extortions by a legion of government officials.

However, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), that is responsible for coordinating affairs at the airports said the heavy presence of government agencies at the exit points was “statutory.”

 

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