- * AWLA Nigeria President Caroline Ibharuneafe decries weak forensic capacity, prolonged trials and children held in adult prisons
More than five years after a primary-school girl was allegedly sexually assaulted by a teacher, the case is still before the courts, now on appeal — a delay the National President of the African Women Lawyers Association, Nigeria, (AWLA) Mrs. Caroline Ibharuneafe, cited as evidence of the difficulties confronting the prosecution of crimes against children.
Speaking at a recent Nigerian Bar Association-UNICEF, justice-sector gathering in Abuja, Ibharuneafe said the case involved a teacher who allegedly assaulted the child with his finger and argued that Nigeria must do far more to deploy forensic science and technology in the investigation of sexual offences.
In countries with stronger forensic systems, she noted, investigators have access to sophisticated methods for recovering and analysing biological and other trace evidence that can help establish what happened.
Nigeria, she argued, cannot continue to rely so heavily on conventional investigation when modern forensic tools could strengthen the evidence presented before the courts.
The point is not to replace testimony with technology, but to give investigators and prosecutors every credible means of establishing the facts, particularly in cases involving children where the passage of time can make evidence more difficult to recover and memories harder to test.
Research into Nigeria’s criminal investigations has similarly identified inadequate adoption of forensic technology as a factor affecting the effectiveness and speed of criminal prosecutions.
For Ibharuneafe, the problem extends beyond forensic science. She also condemned the continued detention of children in adult prisons, warning that a justice system cannot claim to protect children while exposing them to custodial environments designed for adults.
The two concerns point to the same weakness: Nigeria has laws intended to protect children, but the institutions, technology and professional capacity required to enforce those protections remain inadequate.
A child who has allegedly suffered sexual violence should not have to wait years for justice because the system cannot gather and process evidence efficiently. And a child accused of an offence should not be placed among adult prisoners because the country has failed to provide appropriate alternatives.
Nigeria does not need more promises about child protection alone. It needs the forensic capacity, specialised personnel and functioning institutions capable of turning those promises into justice.
