The Federal Government has earlier on Tuesday, directed the police to unravel the circumstances surrounding the gang-rape and murder of Vera Omozuwa in Benin and the serial sexual abuse of a minor in Jigawa State by 14 men, with a view to bringing the perpetrators to justice.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who announced this in a statement issued in Abuja, explained that by bringing the perpetrators of the heinous crimes to justice, the Federal Government will be serving a strong notice of its total aversion to gender-based violence in whatever form.
The Minister described the gang-rape and murder of Miss Omozuwa in Edo State as a cruel and barbaric act that offends human sensibility, in addition to being antithetical to decency, saying no society will tolerate such depravity.
He also said the serial sexual abuse of a minor by 14 men in Jigawa State is not only repulsive but highly condemnable.
”It is said that the true measure of a society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members,” Alhaji Mohammed noted, assuring that the Federal Government will do everything possible to stem the growing tide of gender-based violence in the country.
Vera, the the 100-Level student of the Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Life Sciences of the institution, was said to have gone to the church on May 13, 2020 to read when her assailants pounced on her and hit her with a fire extinguisher after raping her.
She died at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital on May 31.
The Ikpoba Hill branch of the church where the incident occurred was on Sunday morning set ablaze allegedly by angry students of the university, according to a report in The Guardian.
Quoting a source from the institution, the report added that the church security officer had gone to collect keys to the church from its keeper when he was told that there was someone already in the church.
“He got to the church only to find the girl in critical condition and in a pool of blood with the blood-stained fire extinguisher near her. He ran back to inform the keeper and his wife, who went to the church to meet her lifeless.
“After careful observation, it was noticed that she moved her hand and she was immediately rushed to the hospital. It was at there that she revealed she was reading alone that night when the unknown men came into the church, beat her, raped her and hit her head with a fire extinguisher. They left her dead,” the source explained.
VERA OMOZUWA, the UNIBEN student gang-raped and murdered
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