George Okoh in Makurdi
The Benue State Government, in its efforts to stop rape incidents in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp, has created a desk across camps in the state for victims to report cases of rape.
The State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Yangien Ornguga, stated this while hosting members of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Benue State Council, at the Ministry of Justice headquarters in Makurdi.
Yangien also stated that the ministry had created a website to save residents the stress of coming to court to report criminal issues, especially Gender-Based Violence, rape, and other forms of criminality.
“The website will help legal practitioners to effectively discharge their duties with professionalism and also help the Benue people to have access to justice as quickly as possible,” he said.
He said the ministry is in partnership with the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) to prosecute offenders of human trafficking to serve as a deterrent to would-be traffickers and put an end to the menace in the state.
“Under my watch as Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, I ensured the training and capacity building of lawyers to enable them to discharge their duties effectively and efficiently,” he said.
He added that on assumption of office, he discovered that most laws in the state were outdated, warning that if the state operates with laws that do not address present challenges, it would become lawless because practitioners would have nothing to quote.
“Although reviewing laws is capital intensive, we have done the Education Law, Child Rights Law, Violence Against Persons Prohibition Law, Local Government Law; others will still follow,” Yangien said.
He disclosed that the ministry cleared 13 months’ salary arrears owed to the judiciary casual staff, and had increased their monthly pay from N5,000 to N30,000, with plans to increase it further when the economy improves.