Governor Bala Muhammed of Bachi State has said he regrets pardoning and freeing a convicted serial rapist.
The Governor voiced his regrets after he recently released a 50-year old man who was soon after, apprehended for raping a minor inside a mosque.
Muhammed had freed some prisoners in the wake of the #COVID19Nigeria pandemic and lockdown. This according to him, was with a view to decongesting the prisons and avoiding widespread infections.
The serial rapist, Yusuf Bako was soon rearrested for raping a 4-year old.
The governor, spoke in an address on the visit to the government house, of an NGO, Action Committee on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, led by his wife, Hajia Aisha Muhammed.
He said that “gender-based violence has become a pandemic and in Bauchi, unfortunately, I understand through the ministry of justice that we pardoned a serial rapist.
“We must apologise to the women for doing this. It is not our wish to do that. Had it been that I was aware, he would have served his full term. I didn’t know, I wouldn’t have appended my signature.”
The Governor used the occasion to warn anyone who indulges in gender based violence to desist from the act as his administration would take very decisive measures against perpetrators.
The First Lady thereafter recommended the implementation a mobile court to try offenders and mete out speedy justice.
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