The Director-General of NAPTIP, Mrs Julie Okah-Donli, stated this in Abuja, at the public presentation of official gazetted copies of the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act 2015.
The gazetting of the Act in 2018, was facilitated by the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption (RoLAC) Programme of the British Council and funded by the European Union.
The Act prohibits all forms of violence against persons in private and public life and provides maximum protection and effective remedies for victims and punishment of offenders.
Okah-Donli said that the register would serve as a template for keeping data record of all sexual abuses across the country.
According to her, the register will not only serve the purpose of accessing records of cases of sexual abuses in the country, but will be shared among stakeholders to enable them identify culprits.
“It will serve as a tool for comprehending these offenders because we had a case whereby we kept someone in one of the shelters without having a knowledge of his past records and he tried to abuse the girls,’’ she said.
Okah-Donli further stressed the need to have functional and effective shelters for victims of violence in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
She said that the agency was doing its best to house the victims of violence in the NAPTIP shelter, “but there is need for the FCT to establish more shelters to take care of the increasing number of victims of violence in the six area councils.’’
“We have before us today, gazetted copies of the VAPP Act 2015 and simplified version of the law for sensitisation.
“These two documents will serve judicial, administrative and informative purposes.
“It is a step forward in ensuring the protection of women and children who are often victims of violence in our society,’’ she added.
