The Bauchi State chapter of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) on Friday urged parents and relatives of rape victims not to destroy evidence of the act by rushing to clean up the victims but to allow for proper prosecution of the culprits.

This was stated by FIDA Secretary in the state, Hauwa Ahmed Abubakar, at a media roundtable hosted by the state chapter of the Nigeria Association Of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) in collaboration with PLAN international held at the Press Centre secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).

According to her, destruction of evidence before reporting to the appropriate quarters was the major reason it was difficult to prosecute most rape cases.

Abubakar explained that whenever there was a rape case, the victim should first be taken to the hospital and the police station for evidence preservation, adding that after doing that, she should be cleaned.

“Without evidence, they cannot do much. The onus is now on all of us, especially the media to make the society to be aware of the need for evidence preservation.

“What is important especially in rape cases is that, once it happens, there is need not to wash the victim which is very hard. When a girl is raped, the first thing is to tidy her up and in doing so, you find the evidences washed away,” Abubakar said.

She said there was an appropriate law in place in the state to use to meet stiff sanctions against rape perpetrators.

The FIDA scribe further explained that though the implementation of the Violence Against Person (Prohibition) Act, enacted to protect victims against gender based violence, was yet to commence in the state, Section 29 of the Penal Code was still in operation for use to convict culprits.

In her remarks, gender specialist, Helen John decried the high prevalence of gender based violence in Bauchi State, informing that statistics revealed that 22 percent of women experience gender based violence in the state.

John informed that one in three women experience gender based violence globally, adding that both men and women experience one form of violence or the other.